It wasn’t exactly a jailbreak as we know it, but inmates at the San Miguel County Detention Center had to make a quick getaway to escape the threat of oncoming fires.
An evacuation order in late April meant approximately 80 inmates had to be moved quickly to find safer confines.
“I was informed ... that there was a fire near the detention center and so, the San Miguel County Sheriff notified me that I needed to evacuate or plan to evacuate the facility within 48 hours,” Antonio Padilla, warden at the San Miguel County Detention Center, told KRQE.
The jail was constructed in 1995 and had never been evacuated, so there was no formal plan for evacuation, Padilla said. Corrections officials worked with local courts and detention centers around the state. They were able to find placement for 65 inmates, who were bussed to different facilities around the state that had available space, KRQE reported.
Another 21 inmates were released but Padilla characterized them as “low misdemeanor offenders, repeat offenders who were in custody who couldn’t post bond.” Padilla said those released “were no threat to the public.”
The warden added that once conditions were safe, the inmates who were still in custody would return to the jail at a rate of 10 or 15 at a time.
Court proceedings at the San Miguel Magistrate Courthouse, the Fourth Judicial District Courthouse, and Mora Magistrate Courthouse were postponed as well, according to KRQE.
