Fiscal impact reports (FIRs) are prepared by the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) for standing finance committees of the NM Legislature. The LFC does not assume responsibility for the accuracy of these reports if they are used for other purposes.

 

Current FIRs (in HTML & Adobe PDF formats) are available on the NM Legislative Website (legis.state.nm.us).  Adobe PDF versions include all attachments, whereas HTML versions may not.  Previously issued FIRs and attachments may also be obtained from the LFC in Suite 101 of the State Capitol Building North.

 

 

F I S C A L    I M P A C T    R E P O R T

 

 

 

SPONSOR

Rainaldi

DATE TYPED

02/06/04

HB

 

 

SHORT TITLE

Study Incarcerated Female Behavioral Services

SB

SJM 42

 

 

ANALYST

Gilbert

 

APPROPRIATION

 

Appropriation Contained

Estimated Additional Impact

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY04

FY05

FY04

FY05

 

 

 

NFI

 

 

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

 

Duplicates: HJM 52

 

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

 

Response Received From

New Mexico Corrections Department (NMCD)

Children, Youth & Families Department (CYFD)

 

SUMMARY

 

Synopsis of Bill

 

Senate Joint Memorial 42 requests that the New Mexico Corrections Department (NMCD), the Department of Health (DOH) and the Children, Youth & Families Department (CYFD) to assess behavioral health treatment services and substance abuse treatment services for women and girls who are incarcerated.

 

In addition, the NMCD, DOH and CYFD are requested to implement the recommendations in House Joint Memorial 26 from the 2003 legislative session which requests that the DOH to conduct a study to determine the nature and scope of the need for additional treatment beds for violent, mentally ill adolescents, and the need for additional resources for the treatment of violent, mentally ill adolescent females. The DOH was instructed to report its findings to the Legislative Health and Human Services Committee in October 2003.

 

 

 

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

 

Existing DOH, CYFD and NMCD staff will be assigned to perform the duties described in this joint memorial.

 

SJM 42 implies that the NMCD will help assess treatment services for adolescent female offenders in addition to the services for its female inmates.  NMCD does not manage or supervise adolescent females, and its experience in treating such females is limited or nonexistent.  As a result, its ability to assess treatment services for adolescent females may be very limited.

 

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

 

According to CYFD, this bill is correct in stating that girls who are incarcerated at the Youth Diagnostic and Development Center (YDDC) in Albuquerque do not have access to a behavioral health treatment facility or a substance abuse treatment facility.  However, even without a designated facility, there is a combination of behavioral health treatment services offered at the YDDC.

 

Listed below are the recommendations from the 2003 legislative session HJM 26.  Items 1 and 2 on this list would require a significant appropriation to implement.

 

1.                  Expand Sequoyah Adolescent Treatment Center with separate girls’ lodges at an approximate cost of $3.25 million.

2.                  Search for alternative sites owned by the state on which a new program could be developed.

3.                  Expand services by other existing treatment providers.  Build incentives for existing Residential Treatment Centers (RTCs) to provide special programs for violent, mentally ill girls.

4.                  Contract or develop incentives for out of state providers to develop programs for violent, mentally ill girls in New Mexico.

5.                  Increase Community Based Services including Multi-systemic Therapy (MST).

6.                  Increase Psychiatric Services at the New Mexico Girls’ School (NMGS ) on the YDDC campus.

 

The NMCD states that several faulty or erroneous assumptions about the status of treatment for female prisoners and about female prisoners in general were made in SJM 42.  The bill assumes that that behavioral treatment services and substance abuse treatment services for incarcerated women and girls are minimal and inadequate.  Certainly, if the treatment services were inadequate, then the female offenders within the corrections department system could benefit from more such services and such services could result in lower recidivism rates for female offenders.

 

However, the NMCD asserts the following, which conflict with the assumptions upon which the Memorial is based: (a) the recidivism rates for female inmates are not substantially higher than for male inmates, and it is speculative to assume that female recidivism rates can be attributed to inadequate treatment services for women in prison and in the community; (b) treatment services for women at the women’s facility at Grants are not inadequate or minimal, as substance abuse, relapse prevention, recidivism reduction, stress/mood management, self-esteem and women’s employment programs are available to the female prisoners; and (c) even though there is not currently a mental health unit for women in the New Mexico correctional system, the mental health staffing pattern is higher for the women inmates than it is for the male inmates, and the females have access to specialized mental health treatment as needed at the Long Term Care Unit or at the Las Vegas State Hospital.

 

Further, if SJM 42 results in a requirement that the NMCD provide more treatment services for female inmates, the costs to the NMCD to incarcerate and manage these females will obviously increase.  The amount of the cost increase is unknown at this time.

 

RLG/dm