I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Correctional officers earned $7.2 million in overtime last year, mostly working longer hours to make up for a system-wide staffing shortage at New Mexico’s prisons, a state corrections spokesperson said Tuesday.
The state’s prisons have long been understaffed. But four facilities in July reported vacancy rates of 20 percent or more. And one facility — the Roswell Correctional Center, which reported a 27 percent vacancy rate in July – had the department’s highly trained Special Operations Response Team swoop in to search for contraband and to avert possible violence among that facility’s inmates. The team’s arrival had partly to do with Roswell’s staffing shortage, an agency spokesperson said last month.
The vacancy rates often mean correctional officers on the job have to work extra shifts because there aren’t enough individuals to cover every shift.
Agency spokesperson Tia Bland on Tuesday confirmed on Tuesday the $7.2 million overtime amount paid out over the 2010 budget year, which ended June 30.
But she characterized the department’s staffing shortage as a typical challenge that prison systems everywhere confront.
“Correctional officer vacancy rates usually remain fairly high because correctional officer jobs are not jobs that a lot of people want, and it’s not a job that everybody can do,” Bland wrote The Independent in an e-mail. “Corrections agencies are skilled at managing prisons with higher vacancy rates, using overtime.”
She added that recruiting correctional officers is a challenge in New Mexico, but also “industry-wide, and nationwide.”
That said, Bland added, “we are still recruiting and hiring correctional officers. We have an academy class scheduled in September and we’re hoping to have some recruits from Roswell in it.”
Budget woes contribute to problems
Like most of state government, the state’s corrections agency has been hard hit by New Mexico’s budget troubles, with spending trimmed by more than $10 million over the last two budget years.
But even with the recent cuts the corrections department had $4.5 million in unspent funds as of June 30, the last day of the 2010 state budget year, because of austere cost-saving measures at the agency. State budget years run July 1 to June 30. The $4.5 million was originally budgeted for emergencies during the 2010 budget year, and the unspent funds were transferred to the state’s main account, or the general fund, Bland said.
When asked why the agency hadn’t spent the $4.5 million on hiring additional correctional officers — or on programs to reduce the number of offenders who return to prison within three years, Bland responded, “Why would you spend your emergency funding on other things?”
Bland later e-mailed The Independent to say that state law allows a few exceptions for keeping unspent general fund money after a budget year ends, but in general the department is not allowed to keep unspent funds.
“State law would have to be changed or created to allow an agency to keep unspent general fund money,” she wrote in the e-mail. “In past years, the Corrections Department has requested to retain its unspent general fund money. There have been no changes in the law, thus far, to allow the department to do that.”
Problems might worsen
The staffing shortage the state’s prisons is the result of the state’s money woes, and they likely will only get worse, one legislative leader said.
“We keep making cuts across the board,” said Sen. President Pro Tem Tim Jennings, D-Roswell. “You have problems with the state police. You have problems with the corrections. There’s a huge problem here. In recessions you generally have more crime. At some point in time you end up putting the public at risk.”
State officials imposed cuts again on agencies last week because projected revenues for the 2011 budget year, which started July 1, aren’t keeping pace with expenses. The year’s budget gap was projected at $200 million before the most recent cuts.
The state’s money woes mean that the 2011 legislative session is shaping up to be one of the toughest in recent memory as state lawmakers will have to make tough decisions.
The staffing shortage at the state’s prisons “raises the issue that corrections is a tough field,” said Rep. Dennis Kintigh, R-Roswell. “It’s hard to recruit and retain people. It’s demanding. The pay is not the greatest.”
“What we’ve done as a Legislature take an easy way out,” Kintigh added. “Across the board cuts. We need to start identifying priorities. And the challenge is that’s going to upset some people.”
