Bernalillo County jail staff demand warden's removal over safety concerns

More than 100 Bernalillo County jail employees packed the county commission chambers and demanded the removal of Metropolitan Detention Center Warden Kai Smith, turning a workplace revolt into a broader public-safety fight. The group arrived with more than 1,000 signatures backing a change in leadership, and staff said the problems at the jail now reach beyond morale and into the daily security of one of the metro area’s largest detention facilities.

The employees, many wearing union gear, said the jail has been marked by low morale, fear of retaliation, a lack of accountability, safety concerns and communication failures. Bernalillo County manager Candace Hopkins said she has no plans to remove the jail chief, but the union said it will keep pushing for change. For Sandoval County, the dispute matters because MDC sits at the center of the region’s jail network, and any breakdown there can spill into transfers, transport demands, court scheduling and confidence in how metro-area detainees are housed and supervised.

AFSCME New Mexico Local 2499 said conditions have worsened since Smith became warden in 2024. The union passed a unanimous vote of no confidence in Smith on May 15, 2026, and staff repeated those concerns at the June 9 commission meeting. Their complaints were not limited to management style. Employees also pointed to a decline in workplace safety and to repeated frustration over how the jail has been run.

The staffing pressure has already produced concrete fallout. On May 26, 14 members of the Corrections Emergency Response Team resigned, leaving 22 officers on the team. The Albuquerque Journal reported that at least one team leader was among those who stepped down. Those departures followed repeated assaults on officers and complaints about training delays and staffing practices, deepening concern among workers who said the jail is becoming harder to secure with fewer experienced staff on hand.

The unrest has also unfolded against a grim run of inmate deaths at MDC. KRQE reported multiple deaths in 2025 and 2026, including deaths reported on Feb. 3, 2026, and April 28, 2026, as well as the jail’s sixth inmate death of 2025 on July 23. The mounting criticism leaves county leaders facing pressure to explain whether the facility’s staffing problems, safety failures and turnover can be fixed without a leadership change, or whether the strain will keep building inside a jail that serves Albuquerque and affects the wider region.