The Detention Center
Vigil-Maldonado Detention Center (VMDC)
- Operated byColfax County
- Who runs itVigil-Maldonado Detention Center Administrator — the county does not name the current holder. Reports to: County Manager
- Jail address444 Hereford Street, Raton, NM 87740
- Phone(575) 445-3691
- Built1989, as a 42-bed facility (county's own wording)
- Beds42
- Phone providerSecurus Technologies (no rates published)
- PREACounty publishes monthly PREA reports for 2024, 2025 and 2026 on the detention center page
- What was triedhttps://www.co.colfax.nm.us/government/detention_center.php ; https://www.co.colfax.nm.us/government/finance_department.php ; https://www.co.colfax.nm.us/government/elected_officials.php
Source: Colfax 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
- ✗What it costs taxpayers — not published
- ✗Deaths in custody — not published
- ✓PREA audits
- ✗Independent inspection — not published
- ✗Who else it holds, and for how much — not published
- ✗How to post bond — not published
- ✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year built1989
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds42
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Leonard M. Baca
- Runs the jailNo — Colfax County lists the Vigil-Maldonado Detention Center as a separate county department with its own Administrator, alongside the Sheriff's Department
- How the office is filledElected county sheriff; the county lists Sheriff among its five elected offices
- Sheriff's office1413 South 2nd St., Raton, NM 87740; (575) 445-5561
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Colfax County Sheriff's Department · 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. The Eighth Judicial District serves Colfax, Taos and Union counties. Magistrate judges normally set conditions of release at first appearance. Judge Amy Hronich's court biography states she was appointed by Governor Lujan Grisham in September 2022 and won election in November 2022 — a clear illustration of the appoint-then-elect sequence.
Eighth Judicial District Court — Chief Judge
- Emilio J. Chavez
Eighth Judicial District Court — District Judges
- Steven A. Romero
- Jeffrey A. Shannon
Colfax County Magistrate Court
- Amy Hronich (Raton)
- Felix Pena (Springer)
- 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
- Colfax County is one of the New Mexico counties where the jail is NOT run out of the sheriff's office: the Vigil-Maldonado Detention Center is listed as its own county department, and the Administrator post is shown as vacant on the county site.
- Capacity recorded as 'yes' on the strength of the published 42-bed figure; the county does not publish a daily population count.
- PREA recorded as 'yes': the county posts monthly PREA reports for 2024, 2025 and 2026 directly on the detention center page. These are monthly compliance reports, not a third-party PREA certification audit.
- Budget: the Finance Department page carries an Audits list (FY2011-FY2023) and a Budget tab, but no budget document or detention appropriation could be opened, so budget is recorded as 'no'.
- No inmate roster, bond-posting guidance, phone or commissary rate schedule, contract rates for holding other agencies' prisoners, death-in-custody record, or independent inspection result 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 Colfax County was found published. New Mexico's death-in-custody statute, NMSA 1978 Section 33-15-3, applies to private correctional facilities only, so a county-run jail such as VMDC has no state death-reporting requirement.
- Board of County Commissioners, three districts: Si Trujillo (District 1), Mary Lou Kern (District 2, Vice Chairman), Todd Tatum (District 3, Chairman). County offices at 230 North 3rd Street, Raton, NM 87740. No dedicated detention or jail tax was found published.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Colfax 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