MDC asks money for jail rape prevention

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Metro Detention Center officials said a crime that takes place inside the jail could end up costing taxpayers a lot of money in lawsuits, and that is whey they asked county commissioners to accept a federal grant.

MDC Chief Ramon Rustin said five people sued the county in 2012 saying they were raped or sexually assaulted inside the county-run jail on Albuquerque's West Mesa.

Rustin said each lawsuit could cost well over thousands of dollars.

“It could potentially be a million-dollar lawsuit,” Rustin said. “Again, we have to get in front of this so it doesn’t happen.”

Rustin said that's why jail officials asked the county commission to accept a federal grant under the Prison Rape Elimination Act worth $282,000. Rustin said the commission would then have to promise to match that funding.

Rustin said the money would initially pay for a rape-prevention program coordinator who would train corrections officers how to spot situations where an inmate could be raped and how to investigate them if they do happen.

The money would also pay for awareness training for inmates.

Rustin said with the extra money paying for the new program the jail could spend its own funding on a new investigative team.

“We're going to come up with an investigation unit internal that will be able to work with the sheriff's office,” Rustin said.

Rustin said MDC is one of about 10 jails or prisons that have been awarded this grant.

The commission is expected to vote on the jail grant next week.