SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A newly founded watchdog organization on prison conditions says it is colliding with a culture of secrecy at the New Mexico Corrections Department that may interfere with monitoring complaints of civil rights violations by inmates.

The New Mexico Prison & Jail Project on Thursday filed a lawsuit against officials at the Department of Corrections alleging that the agency failed to respond to a request for public records in a reasonable and timely manner.

The Albuquerque-based nonprofit group, led by former ACLU attorney Steven Robert Allen as director and by advisers including civil rights attorney Matthew Coyte, says at least 10 lawsuits have been filed against the Corrections Department so far in 2020 concerning compliance with the state's inspection of public records act.

“We asked for the civil complaints in every (inspection of public records act) case brought against the Department of Corrections and they didn’t provide us those documents, which is outrageous,” said Coyte, a steering committee member for the project. “It’s a simple public record request.”

The Corrections Department has extended its response deadline to late December for a records request initially filed Oct 12.

Agency spokesman Eric Harrison declined to comment directly on the lawsuit and said in email, “Our agency understands the importance of the Inspection of Public Records Act process, and we remain committed to transparency.”

The New Mexico Prison & Jail Project was started with private funding from the Vital Projects Fund that is active on criminal justice issues. It receives administrative support from the Texas Civil Rights Project.

Advisors and staff at the New Mexico project say they plan to advocate for better treatment of inmates — including medical attention amid the coronavirus pandemic — at state and privately operated prisons and county jails through litigation.

Any financial awards from the state — ultimately from taxpayers — would be reinvested into litigation aimed at improving prison conditions, according to Allen.

“We do not have enough lawyers willing to sue on behalf of inmates,” Coyte said. “So this project ... is designed to fill that gap, to fill that void and to create an environment where we can bring multiple lawsuits against the prison or jail system to create change.”

Coyte's prior work on prison conditions includes a lawsuit involving a man who was held in solitary confinement for nearly two years without trial at a county jail in Las Cruces. The lawsuit on behalf of Kevin Sloan, since deceased, resulted in a 2013 settlement in excess of $15 million against Dona Ana County.