By Dan Boyd
Albuquerque Journal, N.M.
SANTA FE, N.M. — After several years of declining, New Mexico’s rate of inmates who end up back in prison after being released has climbed back up to nearly 40%, a new legislative report found.
The increased recidivism rate — well above the national rate of 27% — comes as lawmakers are grappling with how to reduce stubbornly high violent crime rates statewide.
“It still doesn’t sit well with me as we continue to see people ending up back in these facilities,” said Sen. Pete Campos, D- Las Vegas, during a Tuesday meeting of the Legislative Finance Committee at the Roundhouse.
“We want them to be out. We want them to be constructive members of society,” he added.
The LFC report cited substance abuse as a leading cause of recidivism, despite efforts to provide drug abuse treatment and job training programs in state prisons.
Formerly incarcerated individuals released after serving time for drug-related offenses end up back in prison at a higher rate than individuals convicted of crimes unrelated to drugs, the report found.
It also found the state Corrections Department has not fully upgraded to a new central data-tracking system despite receiving $16 million in state funds for the project. Legislative analysts said Tuesday they were unable to compare data about inmate program completion rates and recidivism since the department is still using two different systems for record-keeping.
Corrections Secretary Alisha Tafoya Lucero told lawmakers she’s hopeful the new central data system will be fully implemented by early next year.
She also pointed out some states track recidivism differently than does New Mexico, which defines it as any former inmates being sentenced back to prison within three years of being released.
While Tafoya Lucero acknowledged the state’s recidivism rate increased last year, she pointed out the rate is still lower than it was five years ago.
“That still represents an overall reduction of 10%, even including those numbers,” she said during Tuesday’s hearing.
Attempts to address recidivism
High recidivism rates are not a new problem in New Mexico.
Nearly 50% of released inmates ended up back behind bars as recently as 2019. But the rate then steadily dropped for four years before increasing again this year.
In past years, state prison officials have paid inmates to move furniture, paint, help with landscaping and do other tasks at state government buildings, in part to help them build job skills. A State Forestry program also pays inmates to help fight wildfires.
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Tafoya Lucero also cited the recent grand opening of a store in Santa Fe — open once a month — that sells products made by incarcerated individuals.
“It gives inmates a really exciting thing to do,” she said.
Corrections Department officials in recent years have worked to bolster programming for inmates and shift more funding to transitional housing, due to rising housing prices and scarce real estate availability in some parts of New Mexico. But, according to legislative data, cost savings generated by high correction officer vacancy rates and reduced inmate populations have generally not been pumped back into programs aimed at reducing recidivism.
Focus on substance abuse
A shortage of behavioral health providers has hampered the agency’s efforts to provide more mental health and substance abuse treatment to individuals, Tafoya Lucero said.
With about one-third of the state’s roughly 5,800 incarcerated individuals in prison on a drug or alcohol-related charge, lawmakers in 2023 approved legislation requiring the state to provide medication-assisted treatment by June 2026 to all inmates who qualify for it.
Medication-assisted treatment is the use of medications, alongside counseling and therapy, to treat addiction and substance abuse disorders. In addition, a federal court settlement this year requires the Corrections Department to allow incarcerated individuals with opioid use disorder to continue taking buprenorphine, an opioid medication, while in state custody.
The Corrections Department is seeking additional state funding in the coming year to accomplish those mandates, and top lawmakers signaled support for the programs.
“It’s one of the things that we’re being told again and again. ... This is one of the few ways to address this growing opioid use dependence,” said Rep. Nathan Small, D- Las Cruces, the LFC’s vice chairman.
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