The Detention Center
Socorro County Detention Center
- Operated bySocorro County - the Detention Center is listed as a county Administration department, not under the elected Sheriff
- Who runs itEddie Garcia — Administrator, Socorro County Detention Center. Reports to: County Administration (County Manager) - the Detention Center is listed under Administration, not under the elected Sheriff
- 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 address1001 Grefco Rd., Socorro, NM 87801
- Staff namedEddie Garcia, Administrator; Captain Carlos Valenzuela; Stephanie Martinez, Administrative Assistant
- Beds, year built, costNot published on the county detention center page
- Inmate rosterThe county detention center page links a roster hosted on the county's third-party JailTracker system
- What was triedhttps://www.socorrocounty.net/general-information/organizational-chart opened but the chart is image-only, so the detention center's reporting line could not be read
Source: Socorro County Detention Center · checked 2026-08-24
Transparency rating
3/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✗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 — 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 Lee Armijo
- Runs the jailNo - the Socorro County Detention Center is listed under county Administration with its own Detention Center Administrator, and the Sheriff's Office page describes no jail operations
- How the office is filledElected county sheriff; the county page records Sheriff Armijo as elected in 2022
- UndersheriffAmanda Vega, appointed by Sheriff Armijo
- Office address200 Church Street, Socorro, NM 87801
- CorroborationThe New Mexico Sheriffs' Association county sheriffs list gives Socorro County as LEE POLO ARMIJO: https://nmsheriffs.org/new-mexico-county-sheriffs/
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Socorro County Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-08-24
The Judges
New Mexico judges are initially appointed by the Governor to fill a vacancy, then must run 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. Socorro County is in the Seventh Judicial District; a magistrate court also sits in the county, but no county-specific magistrate page was reachable.
Seventh Judicial District Court - Chief Judge
- Mercedes C. Murphy (Division I, primary office in Socorro County; appointed September 2014; first female judge in the Seventh Judicial District)
Seventh Judicial District Court - Other divisions
- Roscoe A. Woods (Division II, Sierra County)
- Shannon Murdock-Poff (Division III, Torrance County)
District serves
- Catron, Sierra, Socorro and Torrance counties
- 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 site opened on a later attempt, so this entry replaces an earlier one that recorded the domain as unreachable.
- Roster is recorded as yes because the county's own detention center page publishes the inmate roster link; the roster itself runs on the county's third-party JailTracker system rather than on the county domain.
- Budget is recorded as yes on the strength of the county transparency site, which lists folders of budgets, audits and finance reports. Whether a detention or corrections line item is broken out was not verified, as the underlying documents were not opened.
- Capacity, deaths, PREA, inspections, contracts, bond information and phone or commissary rates were not found published anywhere on the county domain. The detention center page links jailatm.com for video visitation and commissary deposits but publishes no rates.
- New Mexico has no mandatory statewide jail inspection body; the NM Association of Counties accreditation program is voluntary and no status for Socorro County was found published.
- NMSA 1978 Section 33-15-3, the death-in-custody statute, applies to private correctional facilities only. County-operated jails have no state death-reporting requirement.
- Board of County Commissioners: Joe Gonzales (District 1, Chairman), Craig Secatero (District 2, Vice-Chairman), John Aguilar (District 3), Danny Monette (District 4), Phillip Montoya (District 5). Regular meetings are the second and fourth Tuesday of each month, with board packets posted by the end of business the Friday before. No dedicated jail tax or detention sales-tax levy was found published.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Socorro 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