December 16 – The New Mexico Prison and Jail Project has filed a lawsuit against the state Corrections Department on behalf of an inmate who claims he was raped by his cellmate for five hours in 2022, when he was a teenager.
The lawsuit, recently filed in district court, accuses the state of holding the prisoner in inhumane conditions and seeks an unspecified amount of damages and legal fees.
The New Mexico Prison and Jail Project is a nonprofit organization that works to protect the rights of incarcerated people in the state by filing civil rights lawsuits on their behalf.
The inmate — who The New Mexican is not naming because he is the victim of an alleged sexual assault — is gay, has a history of mental health issues and was a teenager at the time of the attack, all of which made him more vulnerable to sexual abuse in the jail, the complaint said.
‘Despite these well-documented facts [the inmate] was ordered to share a cell with an individual with a long history of extremely violent crimes dating back decades,” the lawsuit said.
On the night of the attack, the teen’s cellmate covered the windows of their cell door with paper and towels, but no guard questioned that, even though they walked rounds through the home several times during the alleged rape, the report shows. court case.
When medical staff noticed bruises on the inmate’s neck, he told them about the rape, the complaint said, and was then placed in solitary confinement for the next two weeks.
During that time, a counselor visited him twice, for less than 20 minutes each time, and “due to his young age and developmental issues” gave him some markers and crayons to help him take his mind off the sexual abuse he just suffered. had undergone. , the lawsuit said.
Two weeks after the incident, the inmate was transferred from the Lea County Correctional Facility, where the assault allegedly occurred, to another prison.
He “continues to suffer significant mental trauma” because of the failure [corrections] staff and the staff of private prison operator GEO Group to protect him from rape, the lawsuit said.
