Transfers & Finding Someone in New Mexico (NMCD)

Finding someone

The New Mexico Corrections Department publishes an online Offender Search at cd.nm.gov/offender-search that can be queried by name or by NMCD number, the identifier assigned to each person in state custody. The results show the person’s current facility, which is the reliable way to confirm where someone is held.

The NMCD number is also the identifier senders need for mail and money, so it is worth recording once it is known. Someone held in a county jail before transfer to state prison may not yet appear in the NMCD system; a person awaiting transfer from a jail can be located through that county’s facility instead.

Reception and classification

Newly sentenced people are not sent directly to a long-term assignment. They first pass through reception and diagnostic processing, where they are evaluated — medical, mental-health, education, and security classification — and assigned a custody level before being moved to a permanent facility. Where that happens depends on the person:

• Men enter through the Reception and Diagnostic Center (RDC) at the Central New Mexico Correctional Facility (CNMCF) in Los Lunas, the statewide men’s intake center.
• Women enter through the diagnostic center at the Western New Mexico Correctional Facility (WNMCF) in Grants.

Because reception assignment is the first step, the facility shown in the Offender Search during this early period may be a diagnostic center rather than the person’s eventual long-term assignment.

Where women are held

New Mexico holds women at two facilities. The women’s units at the Western New Mexico Correctional Facility in Grants hold the women’s Reception and Diagnostic Center along with general population; the Springer Correctional Center in Springer has been a women’s facility since 2016. A woman’s assignment between the two depends on her classification, so the Offender Search is the way to confirm which one currently holds her.

How transfers work

NMCD reclassifies and moves people among its prisons based on custody level, programming, and bed space. After reception, a person is typically moved to a facility that matches the assigned custody class, and further transfers can follow over the course of a sentence.

NMCD does not generally notify families of transfers in advance. For someone tracking where a person is held, the Offender Search above is the practical tool — checking it again after a suspected move is how a new facility is confirmed.

Private-to-state changes

New Mexico has moved most of its prisons from private operation to state operation in recent years, which has changed who runs several facilities and, in some cases, where people are held:

• The prisons in Clayton (Northeast New Mexico), Santa Rosa (Guadalupe County), and Grants (Western New Mexico, men’s side) returned to state management in 2021.
• The GEO-operated Lea County Correctional Facility in Hobbs ended its NMCD contract in 2025; the people held there were moved to state facilities, and Lea County is no longer an NMCD prison.
• The Otero County Prison Facility in Chaparral, operated by Management & Training Corporation (MTC), is now the only privately operated prison holding New Mexico state inmates.

A person who was at a facility under a former operator or that has left the system now appears in the Offender Search at their current location. Searching by name or NMCD number will find someone regardless of any change in operation.

What a transfer means for visiting

A transfer can change visiting logistics. Every visitor must be on the person’s approved visitor list, which carries over within the system, but visits are scheduled in advance and the days, hours, and contact level depend on the facility and the person’s security classification. New Mexico has no statewide visit scheduler — each facility handles its own scheduling and approvals — so a move to a different prison can change when and how visits happen, and the new facility’s arrangements are confirmed at the current location after a transfer. See Visiting in New Mexico.

Verify Before Acting

For the general, nationwide overview of this topic, see the national guide: Know Your Rights.