Medical Audit at New Mexico Jail Once Again Finds Poor Level of Healthcare
The Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), a jail on the outskirts of Albuquerque, was found in a recent medical audit to have failed to provide adequate medical care to the detainees it cages. Forty-one detainees have died at MDC, the state’s largest jail holding roughly 1,803 on average, since 2020; three of those deaths occurred in 2026, two of which died within the same week in February.
The health report, compiled by Dr. Muthusamy Anandkumar, describes “poor staffing, long waits for detox, unreliable responses to medical emergencies and no framework to track patients’ chronic conditions, medical history, medications and preventive care, such as vaccinations,” according to the Albuquerque Journal. The report cites timeliness as a major concern, with issues such as delayed treatments and patients not receiving their medication quickly enough.
Local officials voted to terminate MDC’s contract with prison healthcare profiteer Corizon, now known as YesCare, in 2023. Corizon declared bankruptcy that same year after facing millions of dollars in outstanding settlement payments. [See: PLN, Jan. 2024, p. 29.] MDC replaced the private company with the University of New Mexico Hospital, which was expected to improve healthcare conditions at the jail.
But while the new medical staff are “clearly motivated and committed,” Anandkumar identified a lack of support as the main cause of insufficient care. As the report notes, there aren’t enough staff members to cover shifts, training deficiencies are widespread, and poor communication between guards and medical providers has led to “preventable medical emergencies.”
Elsewhere in New Mexico, the state’s first case of measles in 2026 was discovered at the Hidalgo County Detention Center. The case affected a federal prisoner held at the facility, located in the southeastern corner of the state. The spread of the disease follows a 2025 statewide outbreak that infected 100 people, and its continuation highlights the public health risk of locking people up in a confined space without providing substantial medical care.
Sources: Albuquerque Journal, Source NM
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