Funding for detention center on Eddy County priority list for 2024 legislative session
Eddy County agreed with a list of priorities drawn up by New Mexico Counties (NMC) to ask New Mexico legislators for in the 2024 New Mexico legislative session, with Commissioners passing a resolution Nov. 7.
New Mexico's upcoming 30-day session starts Jan. 16 at noon.
Among the issues to tackle were detention center reimbursement funds, detention center recruiting and retention and prisoner transportation and extradition. Eddy County officials and NMC hoped the state funding plan crafted by lawmakers would include room for those items.
Eddy County Manager Roberta Gonzales said detention centers across New Mexico were part of a larger conversation county managers had earlier this year during a retreat. She said detention center costs compared to capacity and percentage of capacity were discussed by 20 of the 33 county managers during the retreat.
“We really see a high increase of detention center costs and ironically the capacity of a lot of detention centers are at/or under capacity,” Gonzales said.
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A look at the detention center reimbursement fund
NMC requests an appropriation of $7.5 million for the detention facility reimbursement fund to reimburse counties for a percentage of the cost for housing felony offenders who were sentenced to serve in state prisons and in county facilities, according to the NMC website.
House Bill (HB) 316 was sponsored by former State Rep. Rhonda King (D-50) in 2007, passed the New Mexico House and Senate unanimously and was signed into law by late Gov. Bill Richardson, per the New Mexico Legislature’s website.
The fund was created in 2007 with a $5 million appropriation following litigation between the counties and the state.
“It diminished to less than $2.5 million over the next decade. The Legislature restored it to the 2007 amount of $5 million in 2022 but the five-year average cost to house New Mexico Corrections Department inmates has been calculated by the New Mexico Sentencing Commission to be $7.5 million,” according to NMC.
Detention recruitment and retention
NMC requests an appropriation of $10 million for House Bill (HB) 357 the Detention and Corrections Workforce Capacity Building Fund established by the Legislature in 2023, according to NMC's website.
HB 357 passed unanimously in the New Mexico House and Senate in March and Gov. Michele Lujan Grisham signed the legislation April 7.
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Eddy County’s Detention Center had a 38% staff vacancy as of Sept. 26 of this year.
Neighboring Otero and Chaves counties had higher vacancies, 42% and 47% respectively, according to NMC’s website.
”The fund was created to assist counties with critical detention officer vacancy levels in county facilities notwithstanding significant pay increases, to attract and retain employees,” per NMC.
Prisoner transportation and extradition
NMC has asked for an appropriation of $750,000 for the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration (NMDFA) to fund prisoner transport and extradition for individuals committed by the courts to a state correctional facility.
According to Eddy County’s resolution, state law requires payments be made to counties.
“Counties should not be responsible to for state prisoner extradition,” noted the resolution.
Mike Smith can be reached at 575-628-5546 or by email at MSmith@currentargus.com or @ArgusMichae on X, formerly known as Twitter.
This article originally appeared on Carlsbad Current-Argus: Detention Center funds among Eddy County asks of legislature in 2024
