Cuts could mean prison closures, prisoner release, Corrections chief says

The New Mexico Women's Correctional Facility, Grants

Two of New Mexico’s 10 prisons would be shuttered, hundreds of non-violent offenders released and dozens of people could lose their jobs if the state’s prisons were cut by 7.6 percent, Corrections Secretary Joe Williams said Wednesday.

Williams’s worst-case scenario came in the wake of budget legislation passed last week requiring Gov. Bill Richardson to cut 7.6 percent from dozens of state agencies to help address a $650 million shortfall this year.

K-12 education and state police were largely exempted from the deep cuts, while the Richardson administration and legislative staff jostled this week over whether the budget legislation protected Medicaid, the government’s low-income health insurance program, as lawmakers said it did.

“This would set the department back 20 years,” Williams said in an interview with the Independent, after an agency news release Wednesday morning warned of the consequences of possible spending cuts contained in the Legislature’s budget legislation.

Corrections Secretary Williams

The 7.6 percent in cuts would amount to $21 million and would require the closure of a privately operated women’s prison in Grants and a state-run prison in Roswell, Williams said.

Meanwhile, between 530 and 660 men and women prisoners could be released early depending on how overcrowded other corrections facilities would become absorbing offenders from the shuttered facilities.

Inmates within 12 months of release and who have never been convicted of a felony involving a firearm are eligible for early – or controlled — release, according to the New Mexico Sentencing Commission.

Earlier this year, the Sentencing Commission identified more than 300 inmates eligible for the program using a much more rigorous vetting process. The sentencing agency did not consider sex offenders, DWI offenders and offenders who were serving time on a drug trafficking offenses when determining who was eligible for the July 2009 report.

If an early release occurs, state prisons officials must analyze several factors when deciding who gets out early and who does not, said Gail Oliver, a former deputy corrrections secretary who worked under Williams.

“Will they have a job? Were they gang members? Look at what options do they have outside. Those are the kinds of things they need to look at,” Oliver said. Until her retirement in August, Oliver headed up Richardson’s Re-Entry Council, which was charged with discovering ways to reduce offender recidivism, the rate of offenders who return to lockup within 36 months after their release.

“With release, probation and parole [officials] have to make decisions on who to track carefully,” Oliver added. “Otherwise they are going to be overwhelmed.”

Williams stressed that the worst-case scenario he described would occur if the corrections department had to trim 7.6 percent in expenses.

“I can survive at a 4 percent cut without closing prisons,” Williams added. “May be some furloughs here or there.”

Sen. President Pro Tem Tim Jennings, D-Roswell, whose district includes the Roswell facility, said Wednesday the possible closure of the Roswell facility shows that no one is above feeling the impact of the state’s bleak financial picture.

“There’ll be a lot more of this to come,” he said.

Jennings and other state lawmakers believe that New Mexico could face a potential $1 billion shortfall in January when state lawmakers convene to write next year’s state budget, meaning things could get much worse.

House Majority Leader Ken Martinez, D-Grants, meanwhile, said he was disappointed to learn that the Grants women’s facility might close.

“I am ready, willing to work with the governor to lessen the impact of the cuts during this downturn in the economy,” Martinez said. “One way to do this to make sure we don’t close the prison in Grants. It’s been an award-winning prison.”

Corrections Corporation of America, which operates the New Mexico Women’s Correctional Facility, Grants, was notified Tuesday that the state might cancel its contract. In a statement issued Wednesday, the firm said it was “surprised and concerned” to learn of the state’s possible action at the Grants women’s facility, which holds about 590 women offenders and employs roughly 140.

Meanwhile, the acting warden notified staff at Roswell Correctional Center after a news release announcing the possible closures went out to the media, corrections spokeswoman Tia Bland said via e-mail.

The acting warden “says the staff understands what’s happening, but they’re not sitting around waiting for the next shoe to drop,” Bland said in the e-mail. “They are calling politicians, Chamber of Commerce officials and anyone else they can think of who may be able to save the prison from being closed.”

Oliver, the former deputy under Williams, said she was disturbed to learn that the news media heard about Roswell’s possible closure before staff.

“I am incredibly disappointed in Joe Williams’ decision  to send out a press release to the media et al., without the courtesy of informing his staff at Roswell,” Oliver said in an e-mail. “The staff must be distraught. I can only imagine what the staff may be going through.”

Cuts may cost “those who could least afford it”

Williams’ warning came a day after the state Human Services Department announced that the budget bill translated into severe cuts in the state’s Medicaid program.

The back-to-back worst-case scenarios caused some to speculate that the Richardson administration is laying the groundwork to veto the language requiring the 7.6 percent cut.

“That is exactly what is going on here,” said Angie Vachio, the founder of Albuquerque-based PB&J Family Services Inc., a nonprofit that works with high-risk families.

Vachio said the deep cuts not only affect state prisons but also the state’s Children, Youth and Families Department and other agencies helping people who need it most.

“I very much support the governor vetoing” the budget bill, Vachio said. “Expecting departments to cut this deeply would wind up on the backs of those who could least afford it. To do it with all cuts, it’s too much. This would be so disastrous for people.”

Richardson hasn’t said publicly whether he plans to sign or veto the legislation. The governor can also use his line-item veto authority to cancel parts, but not all, of the bill with the stroke of his pen.

The governor’s office did not respond to a phone call or e-mail about whether the governor is leaning toward vetoes.