Metropolitan Detention Center still providing unconstitutionally inadequate medical care, report shows - Gillian Barkhurst, Albuquerque Journal
The Metropolitan Detention Center’s biannual health care audit found that the jail is still providing an unconstitutionally poor quality of health care for inmates and that “progress is slowing.”
Since the last audit, major understaffing and lack of cooperation between security and medical staff are still concerns, wrote Dr. Muthusamy Anandkumar in an April report.
An official with the University of New Mexico Hospital, which manages care at the jail, said staffing has improved and the health care team is working to address Anandkumar’s concerns.
Kate Loewe, an attorney representing those incarcerated at MDC under a class-action settlement, said UNMH needs to act quickly.
“The urgency for action cannot be overstated,” Loewe said.
Among the biggest issues, according to Anandkumar’s report, is that some patients are waiting more than 72 hours for care when submitting sick slips. Additionally, Anandkumar wrote that staff are not properly triaging severe sick calls or keeping track of inmates with chronic illness.
Another concern is treatment of inmates withdrawing from drugs or alcohol. Anandkumar wrote that withdrawing inmates who are in individual cells are not “routinely” checked on by security personnel and that security fails to tell medical staff about inmates’ symptoms unless they are severe.
The jail has also stopped providing electrolyte drinks to withdrawing inmates, Anandkumar reported. Withdrawing from drugs or alcohol can cause extreme dehydration.
The background issue impacting all these concerns is understaffing, especially as the jail sees a “sustained surge in population,” the report detailed.
Overall, “accountability needs to be tightened,” Anandkumar wrote.
UNMH spokesperson Chris Ramirez said that in the six months since Anandkumar’s visit, staffing at the jail has improved and more inmates are receiving timely care.
UNMH is “close to full staffing” at the jail, Ramirez said, but did not provide a number of full-time employees, temporary staffers and vacant positions because “the numbers change often.”
In April, providers were seeing 146 patients a month, a number that had risen to 500 a month as of August, Ramirez said. Patients with urgent sick calls are seen within 72 hours, Ramirez said and those in stable conditions are treated within 14 days.
“Dr. Kumar visits the MDC again mid-month and we are looking forward to his review,” Ramirez said in a statement Thursday.
Loewe said MDC is not acting with enough urgency.
“These are the most vulnerable people coming into custody,” Loewe said. “And their first few days of incarceration are the highest risk. Since Dr. Kumar’s report, two people died in their cells detoxing. This has to stop.”
MDC has been in trouble with the health care auditor since 2023, when a report first found inadequate medical treatment by then-provider, YesCare. The county eventually cut ties with the private company and signed a contract with UNMH, which took over health care in July 2023.
Since 2020, 38 people have died after being injured or falling ill at the jail, many of whom were detoxing at the time. In that time, and prior to UNMH coming in, YesCare and a previous for-profit company ran health care at MDC.
The latest death was that of 62-year-old Ernest Tafoya, who was arrested after police found him with a few fentanyl pills and methamphetamine.
Before intake, Tafoya complained of chest pain and was taken to the hospital to be cleared for jail. Less than 48 hours after being booked into MDC, Tafoya died after a medical emergency.
No cause of death has been released.
Albuquerque-area homes are getting pricier — and staying on the market longer - Natalie Robbins, Albuquerque Journal
Home prices in the greater Albuquerque area and the time it takes to sell a home continue to climb, though real estate and finance experts say the market is returning to normal after a tumultuous few post-pandemic years.
A high demand caused by a shortage of homes — particularly more affordable “starter homes” — has caused housing prices to rise. This August, the median price for a single-family detached home in the greater Albuquerque area reached $379,545 — the highest number ever recorded by the Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors.
Though affordability is a major concern for many homebuyers, the area’s housing inventory is at its highest level since May 2020, and combined with slower sales, it signals a cooling trend in the market, experts say.
“We definitely have our affordability challenges,” said Albuquerque real estate agent Tego Venturi. “That’s really the number one problem with the housing market right now. It’s priced a lot of people out, and it’s unfortunate.”
Fewer people are choosing to move, preferring to stay in their homes to take advantage of the low interest rate they may have secured during the pandemic, which means fewer people in the market overall, Venturi said.
At one point in the years directly after the pandemic, half the homes on the market sold within four days, Venturi said. Though prices have edged higher, more inventory and a longer time on the market indicate the market is returning to equilibrium, he added.
“This is what a normal or a balanced housing market looks like,” Venturi said. “There’s not an excess of sellers. There’s not an excess of buyers. It’s just balanced.”
According to data from the Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors, houses spent an average of 39 days on the market in August, up from 30 days a year ago. Inventory of single-family detached homes also spiked nearly 15% to 2,163 in August, according to GAAR data.
More time on the market is not necessarily a cause for alarm, said GAAR President Christopher Shain Tanner.
Average days on the market for homes in Albuquerque have fluctuated from as low as 12 days on the market in 2021 — when buyers were racing to take advantage of low interest rates — and as high as 54 days in 2015, because of a larger housing supply.
“We still have a supply and demand issue, where there’s not enough supply,” Tanner said. “But I will say that the demand isn’t quite as hot as it was in the 2020, 2021 timeframe, because the (interest) rates are double what they were (then).”
Mortgage broker Heather Prather said she encounters some prospective buyers at her Albuquerque firm, Infiniti Mortgage, who are on the fence because of higher interest rates. Though, as rates come down slightly, clients are more willing to take the plunge.
Interest for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 7.04% in January, though interest rates have fallen to 6.3% as of Sept. 25, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
In January 2021, interest rates dropped to 2.65%, the lowest point in a decade. Those mortgage rates were so low, Prather said, that buyers would pay more for a home than its listed price to secure a good deal on an affordable mortgage.
“It was very, very rare that someone was not overpaying for a home,” Prather said. “It’s definitely changed. We don’t see a lot of that anymore.”
Though housing stock is increasing, if a buyer is looking for a newly built home around the $300,000 mark, “Good luck in Albuquerque,” Tanner said. “It’s probably not going to happen,”
Those in search of a more affordable home may be drawn to areas like Los Lunas, Rio Rancho and even Moriarty, where new homes are more affordable and more plentiful than in Albuquerque, he added.
Trying to build an entry-level home under $300,000 is “just not possible,” Venturi said, because of the high cost of construction and land. Advocates are pushing for high-density housing, he said, which is cheaper to build, but can be politically fraught.
Even though some would-be homeowners are priced out of the Albuquerque market, Tanner said the city is ultimately in a better position than other Western markets like Phoenix, Dallas and Denver, where populations boomed post-pandemic, and home prices shot up sometimes by as much as 25%.
Though Albuquerque’s market did see a spike, it was around 18%, Tanner said, not as high as other cities.
“The great thing about that is that it kept us insulated, where other markets were not insulated. When they spiked really high, they also had to correct with a downturn, and we have not seen a negative year,” Tanner said. “The colloquial term for New Mexico is ‘the Land of Mañana,’ right? Well, sometimes that hurts, but with real estate, it actually protects us.”