The Detention Center
Otero County Detention Center
- Operated byOtero County
- Who runs itNena Sisler — Correctional Services Director, Otero County Detention Center. Reports to: County Manager (not published; Detention Center is carried as its own county department, not a Sheriff's Office division)
- How this was establishedThe county lists detention as its own department separate from the Sheriff's Office; the reporting line itself is not published.
- Jail address1958 Business Center Blvd., Alamogordo, NM 88310
- Phone575-437-6420
- BedsNot found
- Phone vendorNCIC Inmate Communications, Longview, Texas; free calls from holding cells on admission, collect thereafter; no rate schedule published
- BailCash only at the Detention Center after hours; court bonds posted at Magistrate or District Court during business hours
- Other county-owned detentionThe county's FY2025-2026 Final Budget also carries the Otero County Prison Facility (MTC) and the Otero County Processing Center (ICE) as separate enterprise funds, with bond principal and interest payments — county-owned facilities run by contractors, distinct from the county jail
- ProgramsCommunity Custody Program and Work Release Program published
Source: Otero 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 byOperating revenue includes a 1/8% county correctional gross receipts tax and a general fund transfer, per the FY2025-2026 Final Budget
- BedsNot found
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff David Black
- OfficeOtero County Sheriff
- How the office is filledElected countywide
- Sheriff's Office address3208 N White Sands Blvd, Alamogordo, NM 88310
- Runs the jailNo. The Detention Center is a separate county department headed by a Correctional Services Director
- Role in bailProperty bonds for Otero County court cases are posted at the Sheriff's Office
Still needed
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Otero County Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-08-24
The Judges
New Mexico district and magistrate 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 Twelfth Judicial District serves Otero and Lincoln counties; magistrate judges usually set conditions of release at first appearance.
Twelfth Judicial District Court — Chief Judge
- Daniel A. Bryant (Division III)
Twelfth Judicial District Court — Judges
- Stephen P. Ochoa (Division I)
- Lori Gibson Willard (Division II)
- Angie K. Schneider (Division IV)
- John P. Sugg (Division V)
- Jane E. Granier (Domestic Relations Hearing Officer)
Otero County Magistrate Court
- John R. Secrest (Division I)
- Albert R. Greene (Division II)
Still needed
- 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
- The county publishes five years of final budgets and five years of audited financial statements at https://co.otero.nm.us/151/Financial-Reports. The FY2025-2026 Final Budget (https://co.otero.nm.us/DocumentCenter/View/9588/FY-2025-2026-Otero-County-Final-Budget) contains a Detention Center Fund and detention revenue lines including 'GRT-1/8% COUNTY CORRECTIONAL' budgeted at $1,600,000, SCAAP reimbursement, and commissary revenue.
- The same budget carries two additional county-owned correctional enterprise funds: 'Otero County Prison Facility (MTC)' and 'Otero County Processing Center (ICE)', each with revenue-bond principal and interest payments and roughly $36.2M and $40.4M of FY26 budget authority respectively. These are contractor-operated facilities owned by the county, separate from the county jail.
- The Bail page is unusually clear: where to post court bonds and when, cash-only at the jail, and that property bonds go through the Sheriff's Office.
- The PREA page is a zero-tolerance policy statement with a reporting hotline; no PREA audit report is published.
- Commissary and Inmate Telephone pages describe the services and vendors but publish no price list.
- No inmate roster, bed count, inspection result or in-custody death disclosure was found on the county's own site.
- New Mexico has no mandatory statewide jail inspection body. The NM Association of Counties runs a voluntary accreditation program; no accreditation status for Otero County was found published.
- NMSA 1978 Section 33-15-3, the death-in-custody reporting statute, applies to private correctional facilities only. County jails in New Mexico have no state death-reporting requirement.
- This entry is the New Mexico Otero County (Alamogordo), not the Colorado county of the same name; every page cited is on co.otero.nm.us.
- Three-member Board of County Commissioners: Gerald Matherly (District 1), Amy Barela (District 2), Vickie Marquardt (District 3). Meets the 2nd Thursday of every month at 1101 New York Avenue, Alamogordo. Dedicated detention revenue: the FY2025-2026 Final Budget shows a 1/8% county correctional gross receipts tax budgeted at $1,600,000 for the Detention Center, plus a budgeted general fund transfer to Detention of $6,891,000.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Otero 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