Making matters worse, the, dormitory now contained several maximum security inmates that had been transferred there due to renovations in their cell block. This prison was the site of Americas worst prison riot resulting in the deaths of 33 people in February, 1980. OnlyInYourState may earn compensation through affiliate links in this article. Allen has a vast knowledge of the town of Santa Fe and of the paranormal . Inmates were given no access to outdoor exercise, subjected to frequent strip searches intended to humiliate and harass, denied family visits and allowed only five pieces of paper a week. apology and part promotional for the corrections department. The New Mexico Department of Corrections conducts tours of Old Main at the New Mexico Prison in Santa Fe. First Scout is free of charge (Scouts and tech scouts are limited to 6 hours on first scout. The inmates had also ripped out plumbing fixtures, flooding parts of the building. I was playing guitar and singing songs with some fellow inmates.. I took the tour in 2012. for a location that is believed by many to be the most haunted site in the land It seems to be working. Men were brutally butchered, dismembered, and decapitated and hung up on the cells and burned alive. The majority of the snitches met a horrible end. We didn't see any ghosts but he showed us lots of photo of ghosts, orbs, and other paranormal phenomenon taken in Santa Fe. Four experts talk about how Hollywood has taken a liking to this place, says Trinidad Lucero, leading the tourists back to the prisons old booking area, where a van is unloading another group of visitors. [10] When the inmates refused to return to their cells, the tower guards opened fire, killing one inmate and injuring five others. These details included not just practical things, such as the more secure way they store cell-block keys now, but also softer stuff, all the various programs for prisoners and the like. Yes, please, have prisoners grow vegetables and run a printing press and sew boxer shorts for the other inmates. The original 1885 facility was demolished shortly thereafter. Aside from being highly knowledgeable and a good story teller, Allan was thought provoking. (Go check out that link now: There are two more tour dates this season.). Some concerned necessary prison conditions like overcrowding, inmate discipline, educational services and improving food. Security and recidivism reduction are the priorities of the Division. Cell Block 3was , Opened in 1885, the New Mexico Penitentiary had been authorized by Congress since 1853. 4331 State . It was all cold steel and concrete, [with] no circulation; brutally hot in the summer and freezing in the winter, according to his account. Take a tour-Old Main Prison-New Mexico Penitentiary. In 2013, the prison reopened its doors to the public with a two-hour guided tour, operated by the NMCD. Sam [Chavez] never had a write-up for violence the entire 26 years he was there, says Macias, speaking about the years of solitary confinement Chavez was subjected to. At least 90 other inmates were seriously injured in the riot, suffering from drug overdoses or beatings, stabbings, and rapes inflicted by other convicts. It was a really good tour. This section of the prison was closed in 1998 and is now referred to as Old Main.. I happened to overhear the grownups talking about what went down, and happened to see photos (a family friend, unfortunately for her, was a paralegal with the state attorney generals office and had to deal with all the materials). Ghandnoosh, a research analyst for the Sentencing Project, a nonprofit organisation working for prison and criminal justice reform, spoke about the connection between this mass incarceration and segregation, saying that there was a willingness from the public to use punishment instead of rehabilitation as the way we deal with crime. [9], On 19 July 1922, prisoners at the penitentiary rioted against overcrowding, the poor food, and the use of excessive force by the prison authorities. This prison was the. We found Allan so inspiring we made fun art in response to our time together! https://www.flickr.com/photos/rhdphotography/3017211585. He suffered continuous retaliation for behaviours caused by his mental disability. views punishment as a prisons main function. Now, for under $20, customers can explore one the darkest moments in US penal history, one that fundamentally altered the New Mexico prison system and whose legacy is still felt today. But it was, like, totally sold out? (505) 827-8205. All of our daytime programming . Tours are conducted for part of the year. Eventually, inmates made 11 basic demands. Simultaneously there was much less transparency about what goes on in prisons. Limited numbers of visitors walk through the building, where hatchet marks are still visible on the floor. According to Human Rights Watch, [Solitary confinement] units are virtual incubators of psychoses seeding illness in otherwise healthy inmates and exacerbating illness in those already suffering from mental infirmities.. While some prisoners simply tried to find a safe place to wait out the riot, others banded together to rampage through Old Main, torturing and murdering other inmates. One was tied to a chair. The early prison industry in New Mexico produced bricks. Allan is really knowledgeable about the history of Santa Fe, UFO's, ghosts, energy lines, and really anything else you may be interested in. There is a minimum of five (5) days needed to complete the background checks for access to property. You are subject to their [the prison guards] whims, their anger, their frustration whatever [problems] they had at home was brought out on you, says Chavez, whose experiences reflect the devolution of what was once a short-term punishment into an institutionalised prison tool. . This second riot led to the abandonment of the original facility as a prison and the construction in 1956 of what came to be called the main unit., The third riot occurred in 1980 and became the most infamous. While solitary confinement was meant to limit violence within prisons and some would argue that this has been effective its misuse and overuse has had a severe affect on those subjected to long-term isolation. New Mexico State Penitentiary, Santa Fe, NM (My Opinion), New Mexico State Penitentiary, Santa Fe, NM (More Witness Accounts and Ghost Stories), New Mexico State Penitentiary, Santa Fe, NM (Investigations Summary of 2005), 94 Rock's visit to the New Mexico State Pen, New Mexico State Penitentiary, Santa Fe, NM (Personal Experiences), New Mexico State Penitentiary, Santa Fe, NM (Paranormal Claims), New Mexico State Penitentiary, Santa Fe, NM (History). Ensure you arrive before 2 pm to get entry into the Penitentiary of New Mexico. It was a pressure cooker, adds Nelson, describing the violent make up of the inmates, which included members of Mexican mafia and the Aryan Brotherhood all together in an overcrowded and dilapidated space considered one of the least secure in the prison. Public Tours are not available at this time. Ballejos had been diagnosed with severe personality disorder as well as an anxiety disorder. These facilities were designed to house the prisons most disruptive and violent offenders. The complex consists of three separate facilities. upspeak? The 1980 riot was an inmate rebellion that did not have a plan, leadership, and lacked any defined goals. According to the NMCD, in 2013, the combined average length of stay for prisoners confined to Levels V and VI in New Mexicos supermax is 1,072 days that is, almost three years. In the report following the riot, the prison authorities were blamed for lack of experience, and failure to understand how to control a prison population. The tour took about two hours. So here we have a great example of when the conclusions of the Southwest Ghost Hunter's Association and myself differ. The tour itself was done in interesting way, telling the hour-by-hour story of how the riot began and developed. Once opened, victims were stabbed, tortured, bludgeoned, burned, hanged, and hacked apart.. You'll receive your first newsletter soon! Thanks, NMCDI certainly never thought Id be inside that building and hear the full story I did. Get more stories delivered right to your email. tours? The rioters had keys to the block, but not to the individual cells. Maximum of 20 people per scout). Guards had also failed to secure several doors that were supposed to be locked. potential to be a hotbed of supernatural activity for obvious reasons. The only contact you had was with guards handcuffing you, putting you on dog leashes, beating you, says Chavez, explaining the conditions he faced living in a cell the size of a parking space. Ballejos had been diagnosed with severe personality disorder as well as an anxiety disorder. which is now complete with shuttle service, a personalised mug shot, and an NMCD-produced greeting video in which a diverse set of officers outline the rehabilitative work and positive impacts the New Mexico corrections department has on prisoners and the state. That was built here, she said, as the once-isolated prison complex has been steadily encroached upon by the sprawl of Santa Fe, including a. state-of-the-art film studio built just across the road. Baker used Federal funds from President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty to address prison reform. Half-Day Santa Fe Food and History Walking Tour. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. READ MORE: My life after 44 years in prison. At Old Main, Chavez began to experience abuse and threats at the hands of correctional officers, including arbitrary placement in solitary confinement for months and then years three separate terms that lasted more than two years each at a time. New Mexico State Penitentiary sits about 15 miles from Santa Fe, New Mexico. One goal of these tours, I realized at the end, was perhaps to explain to people why treating prisoners well is a far better idea than treating them poorly. Sonow its a tourist attraction? So, yes, please, teach the gang leaders how to decorate cakes that they can give to their kids when they visit. Once there they smashed their way into the main control center and gained access to every part of the main penitentiary building where 1,157 male inmates were under the custody and care of 25 correctional employees. New Mexico State Penitentiary sits about 15 miles from Santa Fe, New Mexico. Box 27116, Santa Fe NM 87502-0116, If you are interested in Correction Officer and Probation and Parole Officer positions click for detailsRecruiting, Powered by Real Time Solutions - Website Design & Document Management, Download Visitation Policy and Information, For directions on sending mail to an inmate, click here, NMCD lists recruitments through the NM State Personnel Office @, If you are interested in Correction Officer and Probation and Parole Officer positions click for details, Association of State Correctional Administrators, Northeast New Mexico Correctional Facility, Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility. Al Jazeera Centre for Public Liberties & Human Rights, widespread abuse of inmates by prison officials. One of the fellas I used to play Eagles songs with began hollering about prison conditions, says Nelson. Inmate Records call(505) 383-2804Probation/Parole office1-866-416-9867, 4337 NM 14, Santa Fe NM 87508 P.O. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews. [6] The design of the original facility on Cerrillos Road was based on the same plans used for Sing Sing and Joliet. One unfortunate inmate was hung from the upper tier of the cellblock, another had been decapitated. This is the version of our website addressed to speakers of English in the United States. And while this rate has declined slightly since 2008, according to an email correspondence with BJS statistician Lauren Glaze, the US still has experienced a 500 percent increase in its prison population over the last 30 years. The ghost stories and history of New Mexico's most haunted places are fascinating, but are they really haunted by ghosts? A group of men, sometimes referred to as an execution squad, used blowtorches liberated from the construction project on cell block five to access these cells. Adventure Styles. He soon became a self-taught legal advocate for other inmates a so-called jailhouse lawyer, as well as an inmate representative under the Duran Decree working with outside lawyers to monitor prison conditions during the nearly two-decade period of federal oversight. Almost two decades after the deadly prison riots, could old souls still be doing time? You must know an offender's first and/or last name or NMCD Number to begin the search process. The peak population of the New Mexico State Penitentiary reached 1,272 inmates. About 30 years later, more than 40 states operate these facilities designed to hold the countrys most dangerous and disruptive inmates in segregated conditions. Old Main closed in 1998 but you can sometimes take a tour. By 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 3, 1980, the violence had spent itself; police and National Guardsmen retook the prison without resistance. Using the keys that had been taken from the officers, inmates freed fellow prisoners then moved through an open grill gate, which was also unlocked, to the administrative area. (It does contain some graphic descriptions of the violence.). People remember the riot, says Chavez, speaking to Al Jazeera last summer at a coffee shop near his home in southern New Mexico. The Level VI Supermax site contains New Mexico's Death Row. In 2013, the prison reopened its doors to the public with a two-hour guided tour, operated by the NMCD. Adventure awaits at every corner. The Penitentiary of New Mexico (PNM) is located along the old turquoise Trail, 14 miles south of Santa Fe. 1980 riot Would you want to tour Old Main? Enjoy this tour of the Old Main Prison located near Santa Fe, New Mexico. Thank you! I remember I would run in the cell, seven-and-a-half paces towards the door, then I would turn around and head back. In violation of prison security procedures. 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