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Resident accuses jail staff of mistreatment; commissioners urged to inspect facility
Summary
A Taos resident told commissioners she has documented alleged mistreatment and poor food at the county jail and asked the board and county manager to conduct a walk-through and respond; the commission acknowledged the complaint but did not commit to a timeline.
Yolanda Montoya used the public comment period to raise multiple complaints about conditions at the Taos County jail, including what she described as mistreatment by correctional officers and inadequate food service. She alleged that an officer deliberately left a plastic commissary bag in a cell yesterday, triggering a lockdown and the loss of commissary items; she said outreach to county staff and the county manager produced no response and insisted the commission "Do a walk through through the jail, see what's going on in there?".
Chair responded that some matters are "public knowledge" but also said there are legal limits on what the commission can do in that moment. The complaint prompted public discussion but no formal investigative motion during this meeting; the Sheriff's Office and county manager were mentioned as organizations responsible for investigations in the transcript, and commissioners did not record an immediate follow-up action on the record.
