Uphill climb remains for private prisons bill

Legislation to shutter private prisons in New Mexico staggered out of the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, Feb. 10, following nearly four hours of debate, two amendments and one new committee referral that will greatly lessen its chances for success.

One of the amendments added funding to the bill to assist communities that would be impacted if the private prisons were shut down. That made it a spending bill, which means it must now be approved by the House Appropriations and Finance Committee, before getting a chance to be heard by the full House.

Rep. Angelica Rubio, D-Las Cruces, said shutting down private prisons is her top priority for this session, and has vowed to continue the effort beyond this year if necessary.

The bill would prohibit state and local governments from entering into any new contracts or extending any existing contracts for the operation of private prisons.

Supporters of the bill argued that New Mexico has a greater reliance on private prisons than any other state in the nation, with nearly half of all inmates being held in for-profit facilities. Those prisons have a history of cutting corners to save costs, putting both staff and inmates at risk, they said. And they create a perverse incentive for the state to increase incarceration rates.

State prison officials agreed that New Mexico needs to transition away from private prisons, but said it needs to be a well-planned and organized process. State Corrections Secretary Alishia Tafoya Lucero testified during an earlier committee meeting, and Gary Marcial, director of the Adult Prisons Division, testified Wednesday. Both said the state would face a shortfall of some 3,000 beds if the private prisons were shut down.

Otero County Attorney Michael Eshleman told committee members that the county has outstanding bonds on the Otero County Prison Facility and the Otero County Processing Center for immigration in Chaparral, which are both operated by Management and Training Corporation but owned by the county. If those facilities are closed, there would be no revenue to pay off the bonds, he said.

That led to the amendment by Rep. Zach Cook, R-Ruidoso, to help workers in Otero County and other rural areas of the state where private prisons are among the top employers.

The amended bill passed the Judiciary Committee on a 7-5 vote, with Rep. Eliseo Lee Alcon, D-Milan, joining with Republicans in voting “no.” Alcon, a former prison official, said the state does not devote enough resources to the Corrections Department to ensure that state-run prisons would be any better than private ones.

Rep. Micaela Lara Cadena, D-Mesilla, cast the decisive vote allowing for the do-pass recommendation after agonizing over the decision.

“I do fundamentally believe that there never should be a profit involved in incarcerating humans, but New Mexico made this deal with the devil a long time ago,” she said.

She said she was listening to the concerns of Corrections officials and was worried about inmate care if the state ended up in a situation where there were more inmates than beds.

“If this is successful, how might we be able to pull the budgets together so they could handle the immense responsibility of figuring out how to handle these inmates?” Cadena asked. “If I vote for it, it will be with the understanding that it will get a much deeper look.”

Bill cosponsor Rep. Daymon Ely, D-Corrales, attempted to avoid that deeper look, fearing that the bill would not survive a referral to the Appropriations and Finance Committee. He asked that it be rolled over instead to give Rubio more time to work on it.

But after devoting four hours to the bill, and with several more on the list needing to be considered that day, Committee Chair Rep. Gail Chasey, D-Albuquerque, urged that legislators take the vote and move on. The bill now awaits a hearing in the House Appropriations and Finance Committee.

Walter Rubel can be reached at waltrubel@gmail.com.