Official backs off Second Chance inmates

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - A Sierra County official engaged in major backtracking Friday after her statements the day before threatened to cause big trouble for an Albuquerque drug-treatment program called Second Chance.

County Manager Janet Porter-Carrejo told News 13 that she was sending overflow inmates from her jail to the Second Chance rehab center without getting permission from a judge.

However on Friday she said she now believes that judges did OK those inmates. She also said a clerical mistake at her jail caused additional confusion.

What Porter-Carrejo was saying Thursday could violate Second Chance's lease with the city of Albuquerque.

"They were established as a treatment facility and not a jail, and it appears to me that it's being run as such," Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White said before Porter-Carrejo retracted her initial statements.

Second Chance leases an old jail on the West Mesa from the city, and the agreement requires that a judge sign off on everyone sent there.

On Friday Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez said he's ordered an investigation to find out what's going on:

"That is whether they're housing inmates who are there for reasons other than rehab, (that is) for overcrowding in certain jurisdictions," Chávez said.

Sierra County has sent some prisoners from its overcrowded jail. A document from that jail said a man who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder was one of them.

Porter-Carrejo said that the document is wrong and blamed the bad information on a clerical error.

"So we're going to review the status of each individual in that facility to make sure they're in full compliance with their agreement," Chávez said.

Program officials insisted everyone sent to Second Chance is getting substance-abuse treatment.

The program uses sauna and vitamin therapy as part of a detox program which is based on the teachings of the founder of Scientology.

So far Second Chance has received about $1.5 million of taxpayer money and plans to ask the Legislature for more next year.