Hoaxes and Revelations in the Land of Enchantment
Need a good bedtime story? Talk to New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson. When Johnson's hand-picked administrators at DOC uncovered a "secret escape tunnel" in their state penitentiary this February, they insisted it was proof that privatization was necessary. It wasn't until AFSCME corrections officers arrived on the scene that the more mundane truth was revealed.
In a February press conference, DOC administrators -- including Johnson's nominee for corrections secretary, Dona Wilpolt -- announced that they had found in the dilapidated Penitentiary of New Mexico a partially completed escape tunnel and a concealed kitchen.
The governor's theory? The kitchen would be used by inmates to feed themselves during a riot undertaken to divert attention from prisoner escapes via the tunnel.
With inmates in lockdown until ringleaders could be found, reporters were given a full tour of the tunnel and the kitchen. They then reported the story just as it was spun - saying the discovery demonstrated that the state needed new facilities and new private sector prison management to go with them.
It wasn't until AFSCME Council 18 Pres. Luis Arellano and Staff Rep. John LaBombard -- himself a CO -- called a press conference the next day that the truth came to light. The tunnel hadn't been dug by prisoners. It had been dug by the state. COs had known about the tunnel since it had been constructed years ago as a crawlspace to lay electrical conduit. And the "riot kitchen" was used to heat staff meals in an outlying building.
The first day after the AFSCME press conference, Johnson said the officers were lying to cover up their own security lapse. The second day he blamed his administrators for acting on bad information. The third day he blamed himself.
But none of it was enough to save Wilpolt's nomination. On March 5, the state senate rejected her nomination by a 24-17 vote. Wilpolt was the first state cabinet nominee publicly opposed by New Mexico AFSCME.
As for the contents of that underground fridge that was to feed 430 rioting prisoners? One dozen eggs, one gallon of milk and one chicken.
