9 August 2024
Bernalillo County, NM. – The Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) has restored all affected services as an internet outage that impacted the facility since Thursday morning has come to an end.
Lumen (CenturyLink) customers, including MDC, experienced internet outages from approximately 11:30 a.m. Thursday, August 8, through approximately 5:30 p.m. Friday. The internet outage at MDC caused disruptions in several areas of facility operations, including inmate admission and release. As a result, MDC staff utilized paper processes for all facility functions that normally require internet access, and additional staff and resources were assigned to affected departments and processes.
Inmate release had already resumed Friday afternoon, but with a delay. MDC staff worked off-site to conduct checks and balances to ensure the accuracy of the release process. The intake process was also delayed, but remained open. Some parts of the intake process, including inmate medical screenings, were moved to the Inmate Transport Center, where UNM Hospital staff worked on-site. This change will remain in effect through Monday as a precautionary measure.
Due to this outage, some inmates missed their Friday court appearances. MDC staff are working diligently with court officials to reschedule these appointments.
Telephone conversations and virtual visits with inmates are now possible again. Publicly accessible information systems such as the MDC’s detention and release lists are also accessible again.
During the outage, Bernalillo County IT staff worked around the clock to set up backup Internet access, using local Star Link satellites to connect key Internet-based systems, including medical programs. IT staff will begin the recovery phase of this operation and will continue to closely monitor MDC’s network.
Although this outage impacted several areas of MDC operations, management assured the public that there were no safety threats. MDC staff remain focused on maintaining operations of a safe facility.
We apologize to our inmates, staff, the public and our professional partners for any inconvenience caused by this outage.
