SANTA FE, N.M. — The New Mexico State Legislature will be debating House Bill 40, a piece of legislation that would make it illegal for any city, village, or county to enter into an agreement or extend a contract with a private prison. This proposed legislation affects Cibola County because two of the county’s three detention facilities are owned by a private company. The Cibola Citizen first reported about this bill on Jan. 27.
A group called People Over Private Prisons New Mexico is helping New Mexico Representative Angelica Rubio (D — Dona Ana), Rep. Karen C. Bash (D — Bernalillo), Rep. Daymon Ely (D — Bernalillo, Sandoval), Rep. Gail Chasey (D — Bernalillo), and NM Senator Katy M. Duhigg (D — Bernalillo, Sandoval) to advance the bill.
Where is the bill today?
The bill was last in the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee and advanced unofficially through committee. It wasn’t approved by vote in the committee and should be headed next to the House Judiciary Committee for approval but has been filed to be placed on the House Calendar for a vote by the whole House and advancement to the New Mexico Senate.
The proposed legislation was unofficially advanced because a committee report on the bill was sent to the House but not adopted by the committee.
What does this bill do exactly?
Section 3, A of the bill reads, “It is unlawful for any person, corporation, business or nonprofit entity to operate a private detention facility.”
The bill makes it clear that no entity, including a county, municipality, sheriff or lawmaker of any kind is allowed to make an agreement to expand the private incarceration of people in New Mexico. The bill makes it unlawful for any entity or person to be reimbursed for the work of keeping a private prison.
If passed, all incarcerated people across New Mexico will be moved to state prisons, as clarified in Section 4, B of this bill. However, no person will have the length of their sentence reduced or commuted regardless as to where they may end up due to this bill.
Where will all the prisoners go?
Under the bill all people who are sentenced to a term of less than one year can be held by the county in which they committed their crime if the county has entered an agreement with the state to allow such an incarceration. If the county has not entered into an agreement with the state, the person will be held at the judge’s discretion. Counties will have the authority to petition the judge for a change in where the person will be held.
The bill allows for the NM Corrections Department to enter contracts with publicly held incarceration facilities, like jails operated by cities, to hold inmates.
Until the expiration of the contract, private prison and incarceration facilities will be allowed to continue their work. Upon expiration of the contract, counties, municipalities, and other entities will not be allowed to reenter the contract.
What do officials say?
“With a history of serious and chronic violations in privately-run facilities, private prison corporations continue to advance their profiteering while failing to fix abundant documented problems. Given the financial and human costs of privatized detention, now made more acute by a global pandemic, it is time to end the costly business of private detention in New Mexico,” said a POPPNM spokesperson.
NM Corrections Department Secretary Alisha Tafoya Lucero said that New Mexico is not ready to shutdown private detention facilities. Tafoya Lucero has been in the corrections department for more than 18 years and was appointed to the post by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham in 2019. Tafoya Lucero said that the department has been working over the years to phase out private incarceration facilities but that the department cannot rush the process without serious issues arising.
Tafoya Lucero said that if this bill were approved New Mexico would lose around 3,000 inmate beds. The comments come after US President Joe Biden urged the US Justice Department to begin the work of phasing out for-profit incarceration facilities.
Rep. Rubio can be contacted at 575-616-1090; Rep. Bash can be contacted at 505-238-2117; Rep. Ely can be contacted at 505-610-6529; Rep. Chasey can be contacted at 505-266-5191; Sen. Duhigg can be contacted at 505-397-8823.