Prison error is boon for some inmates

SANTA FE (KRQE) - In November 2009, Santa Fe attorney Carlos Fierro pled guilty to charges stemming from a drunken hit-and-run that killed 46-year-old father William Tenorio in 2008.

His sentence following a plea deal? Seven years minus 10 months of time already served.

But since he started serving that time, Fierro has been working hard to shave time off that sentence.

State law allows inmates to earn time off their sentences in two major ways.

If an inmate has good behavior for a month while in jail, he or she gets a month shaved off in "good time".

Inmates can also earn a degree or take a wide selection of classes to earn more "good time" in what are known as lump sum awards.

Fierro took advantage of those rules.

Over the last two years, he's earned seven months of "good time" by training as an auto mechanic, a firefighter, a cook and a network cable technician.

Add in time off for good behavior and additional months off for jobs skills and therapy courses, and Fierro's original release date in January 2016 was moved up to April 2012.

That was, until a member of Tenorio's family asked the New Mexico Corrections Department (NMCD) about Fierro's release date.

That simple question sparked an internal audit of the NMCD's programming offered to inmates and the time dozens had already earned. During that investigation, a number of lump sum awards were temporarily taken from about 40-60 inmates including Fierro.

"We found through several audits that there were programming integrity problems that needed to be addressed," said Corrections Secretary Gregg Marcantel.

The audits found that inmates at the Central New Mexico Correctional Facility in Los Lunas were allowed to take courses they may not have been allowed to take. Under NMDC policy, when an inmate wants to take a class for time off their sentence, a committee is supposed to review whether that class is a good fit or appropriate for the inmate to take before he or she starts the course.

But that pre-approval process didn't happen for dozens of state inmates.

"We've got some administrative errors that have to be corrected to assure, in the future as we go forward that we're not creating a shopping spree for offenders," said Marcantel. "The solutions to these gaps really aren't that complex. They're pretty simple."

Marcantel says inmates who completed those classes, pre-approved or not, will be given their good time back because this was the prison's mistake. Not all of the credits have been restored however, because NMDC says it's still reviewing records to determine whether inmates actually attended those classes or not.

"Good time wasn't taken from anybody, but we needed to make sure inmates had shown up to the appropriate training," said Marcantel.

As part of the internal audit, two programs available to inmates have been temporarily suspended to check that they met NMDC standards, both of which Fierro was in the process of taking for time off.

A department spokeswoman says those classes should be restored for inmates later this week.

In a phone interview, Fierro's attorney Ray Twohig says his client was targeted by NMDC to slow down his release time, an accusation Marcantel denied vehemently at a Tuesday morning press conference.

Meanwhile, the family of William Tenorio had a message for Fierro.

"Our father, William Tenorio, taught us to forgive," said Dianna Tenorio, William's daughter. "We have forgiven Carlos Fierro. We ask only that he remember he is not the victim."

NMDC says Fierro's current release date is projected to be August 18, 2012 but if Fierro is given credit for programs he had already participated in or was in the process of completing, that could be moved much earlier.