The Detention Center
Cibola County Detention Center
- Operated byCoreCivic (private operator) — the county's own detention page lists CoreCivic as the contact for the facility
- Jail address2000 Cibola Loop, Milan, NM 87021
- Main phone(505) 285-4900; intake (505) 285-4979
- County contactMarina Pena, Detention Liaison, (505) 285-2548 — county liaison, not a jail administrator
- VisitationCounty page states: see CoreCivic regarding detainee and inmate visitation schedules
- BedsNot found on the county site
- What was triedhttps://www.cibolacountynm.com/departments/detention_center/index.php ; .../inmate_services.php ; .../bond_information.php ; https://www.cibolacountynm.com/government/transparency.php
Source: Cibola County Detention Center · checked 2026-08-24
Transparency rating
3/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✗Beds and daily population — not published
- ✓What it costs taxpayers
- ✗Deaths in custody — not published
- ✗PREA audits — not published
- ✗Independent inspection — not published
- ✗Who else it holds, and for how much — not published
- ✓How to post bond
- ✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year builtNot found
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- BedsNot found
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Larry D. Diaz
- Runs the jailNo — the county's detention page directs all detention operations to CoreCivic at 2000 Cibola Loop, Milan
- How the office is filledElected county sheriff
- Sheriff's office2001 Clif Lear Ave.; mail 700 East Roosevelt, Suite 50, Grants, NM 87020
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Cibola County Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-08-24
The Judges
New Mexico judges are initially appointed by the Governor to fill a vacancy, then stand in a partisan election at the next general election, and thereafter face non-partisan retention elections. District and magistrate judges are state judicial officers, not county officials. Magistrate judges normally set conditions of release at first appearance.
Thirteenth Judicial District Court — Division IV (Grants, Cibola County)
- Amanda Sanchez Villalobos
Thirteenth Judicial District Court — Chief Judge (district-wide)
- Cindy M. Mercer
Cibola County Magistrate Court
- Tony L. Mace (Division I)
- Johnny Valdez (Division II)
- The county's bond schedule
- Share of the jail population held pretrial
- Median time from booking to first appearance
Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-08-24
The County Commissioners
They pay for the jail. The sheriff runs it.
- What they controlThe detention budget, the building itself, and the agreements that let other agencies rent its beds.
- What they don'tDay-to-day operations. The sheriff is separately elected and answers to voters, not to the board.
- The boardBoard of County Commissioners →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Cibola County names a Cibola County Detention Center on its own site but lists CoreCivic, a private corrections company, as the operating contact at 2000 Cibola Loop, Milan. The county's role on the page is a Detention Liaison position.
- Because the operator is a private correctional facility, NMSA 1978 Section 33-15-3 — the New Mexico death-in-custody reporting statute, which applies to private correctional facilities only — is the relevant reporting law here. County-run jails in New Mexico have no equivalent state death-reporting requirement.
- The bond information page lists contact details for the Milan Municipal, Grants Municipal, Cibola County Magistrate and Cibola County District courts rather than explaining bond procedure directly.
- Budget recorded as 'yes' on the strength of the county's own Financial Reports page, which lists and links full GFOA annual budgets for FY21 through FY24 plus monthly finance reports for FY2020-FY2026. The FY24 budget PDF itself exceeded the fetch size limit, so a specific detention or corrections appropriation line was not confirmed.
- No inmate roster, bed count, daily population, PREA audit, independent inspection result, death record, contract rate schedule, or phone/commissary fee schedule was found on the county's own site.
- New Mexico has no mandatory statewide jail inspection body. The New Mexico Association of Counties runs a voluntary accreditation program; no accreditation status for Cibola County was found published.
- Board of County Commissioners, five districts: Christine Lowery (District I, Chair), Ray Carpenter (District II), Ralph Lucero (District III, 1st Vice-Chair), Joseph Windhorst (District IV), Georgia Routzen Sanchez (District V). Regular meetings on the fourth Thursday of each month at 5 p.m. in the Cibola County Commission Chamber, Grants.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Cibola County and what it costs the people who live here. Nationally, almost 77% of the people who died in local jails in 2019 had not been convicted of anything, and suicide was the leading single cause of those deaths (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Mortality in Local Jails, 2000–2019).
How much is your sheriff — and your judge — costing you?
Your VOTE is POWERFUL.
The sheriff who runs this jail is elected. So are the commissioners who pay for it.
Names verified 2026-08-24 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered