Two new wrongful-death lawsuits accuse a New Mexico prison of systemic problems, including covering up evidence surrounding prisoner deaths, allowing drugs to circulate in the prison and even denying urgent medical care.
The prison is owned and operated by Tennessee corporation CoreCivic, one of the largest private prison corporations in the U.S. with dozens of facilities nationwide. The company changed its name from Corrections Corporation of America in 2016 amid an investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) that found inadequate medical care, high violence rates and substandard conditions. CoreCivic also operates the Torrance County Detention Facility in Estancia and the Otero County Prison Facility.
The Biden administration pledged to phase out private prison contracts for federal Bureau of Prisons inmates, and CoreCivic has since pivoted to lean more heavily on contracts with the U.S. Marshals Service and ICE, which are exempt from the presidential order.
One case alleges CoreCivic allowed drugs to circulate inside the facility and that evidence was destroyed after a detainee’s death. The second case alleges CoreCivic and its medical contractors ignored a man’s mental health crisis and then denied him lifesaving medical care.
According to court documents, the first case relates to the death of a woman who arrived at Cibola in late 2021 and was found unresponsive in her housing unit two days later. An autopsy cited toxic levels of methamphetamine, fentanyl, codeine and morphine in her system.
The lawsuit argues that she could not have obtained the drugs while in custody without staff complicity. It further claims that key security footage from the time around the woman’s death was deleted, even though her family’s lawyers requested it be saved for evidence.
It names CoreCivic and a number of its employees, claiming wrongful death, failure to maintain evidence and failure to comply with records inspection laws. The plaintiffs are seeking monetary damages and sanctions for tampering with evidence.
The second suit is in response to the death of a man whose survivors say CoreCivic put profits ahead of safety and even conspired to deny him treatment. The man suffered a severe mental health crisis while in custody, but contractors allegedly ignored his condition and he was denied proper medical care. The complaint goes on to claim that CoreCivic, the company’s medical contractor and staff at Cibola General Hospital conspired to return him to custody without treatment.
The lawsuit accuses CoreCivic of negligent hiring and training, intentional infliction of emotional distress and conspiracy to deny medical care. It argues that these failures directly led to the man’s death. The plaintiffs are looking for compensatory and punitive damages.
For Cibola County, the stakes are high. The prison is one of the largest employers in Milan, and its 2017 U.S. Marshals contract is a driving force in the local economy.
“Our facilities have trained emergency response teams who work to ensure that any individual in distress receives appropriate medical care, and we are deeply saddened by and take very seriously the passing of any individual in our care,” says CoreCivic Senior Director of Public Affairs Ryan Gustin. “Any death is immediately reported to our government partners and investigated thoroughly and transparently.”
The only thing shocking about this is that the FBI is allegedly investigating.