The Detention Center
Not found — no De Baca County jail or detention centre could be sourced
- Operated byNot found
- County populationAbout 1,793 — the second-least populous county in New Mexico, per New Mexico Counties
- County websiteNone found. New Mexico Counties' own De Baca County page carries a 'Read More at County Site' link that points to the county's Wikipedia article rather than to a county domain, and debacacounty.com resolves to a parked lander page.
- Where prisoners goNot found — no published statement could be located naming the facility that holds De Baca County detainees
- What was triedhttps://www.nmcounties.org/counties/de-baca-county/ ; https://nmsheriffs.org/new-mexico-county-sheriffs/ ; https://tenthdistrict.nmcourts.gov/about-this-district/our-courts/ ; the detention pages of the two nearest counties that publish one, https://www.quaycounty-nm.gov/department/detention/ and https://www.rooseveltcounty.com/detention/, neither of which names De Baca County; and direct probes of debacacountynm.gov, debacacounty.org, debacacounty.com, debacacounty.net, debacacountynm.com, co.debaca.nm.us, debacanm.gov, debacacounty.us, fortsumnernm.gov and villageoffortsumner.com, none of which returned a county website.
Source: De Baca County — New Mexico Counties · checked 2026-08-24
Transparency rating
0/10Closed- ✗The jail is named — not published
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✗Beds and daily population — not published
- ✗What it costs taxpayers — not published
- ✗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 — not published
- ✗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 Robert Roybal
- Runs the jailNo jail found — no De Baca County detention facility could be sourced
- How the office is filledElected county sheriff
- Sheriff's office248 Ave C, Fort Sumner, NM 88119
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: New Mexico Sheriffs' Association — county sheriffs · 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. They are state judicial officers, not county officials. The Tenth Judicial District is the smallest in the state and serves De Baca, Harding and Quay counties from Tucumcari, with a single district judge. Magistrate judges normally set conditions of release at first appearance.
Tenth Judicial District Court — Chief Judge
- Timothy Rose — serves Quay, De Baca and Harding counties
De Baca County Magistrate Court
- Not found — the Tenth Judicial District site confirms a De Baca County Magistrate Court but publishes no judge roster for it
De Baca County Probate Court
- Not found
- 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 →
Notes on the record
- All ten transparency checks are 'no' for a single structural reason: De Baca County appears to have no county website at all. New Mexico Counties, the state association of which De Baca is a member, points its 'County Site' link at the county's Wikipedia article. That is the finding, not a gap in the research.
- De Baca is the second-least populous county in New Mexico at roughly 1,793 people. No county-operated jail or detention centre could be sourced, and no published statement naming where De Baca County detainees are held was found. The two nearest counties that publish detention pages, Quay and Roosevelt, do not name De Baca County on them.
- The elected sheriff, Robert Roybal, is recorded from the New Mexico Sheriffs' Association roster; there is no county page to corroborate it.
- New Mexico has no mandatory statewide jail inspection body. The New Mexico Association of Counties runs a voluntary adult detention accreditation programme through the Adult Detention Professional Standards Council; no accreditation status for De Baca County was found published. NMSA 1978 Section 33-15-3, the state death-in-custody reporting statute, applies to private correctional facilities only.
- De Baca County is governed by a Board of County Commissioners, but no county website could be found, so no board page or agenda/minutes page can be cited. New Mexico Counties lists De Baca among its 33 member counties but links its 'County Site' to Wikipedia.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in De Baca 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