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committees of the NM Legislature. The LFC does not assume responsibility for the accuracy of these reports

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

SPONSOR Campos

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/12/07

3/09/07 HB

SHORT TITLE Jail Operation Contract Duration

SB 823/aSJC/aHHGAC

ANALYST Peery-Galon

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

NFI

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

New Mexico Corrections Department (NMCD)

Department of Finance Administration (DFA)

New Mexico Sentencing Commission (NMSC)

SUMMARY

Synopsis HHGAC Amendment

The House Health and Government Affairs Committee amendment to Senate Bill 823 allows for

additional one-year or two-year extensions not to exceed a total of five extensions regarding the

contracting for the operation or management of jails.

Synopsis SJC Amendment

The Senate Judicial Committee amendment to Senate Bill 823 calls for the removal of brackets

and lining through the wording “up to" on page 1, line 21. It appears that there is a technical

error, in that the line number is 22. The amendment allows contract agreements between county

or municipal jails and private contractors for the operation or management of jails to be up to

five years.

Synopsis of Original Bill

Senate Bill 823 amends Section 33-3-27 NMSA 1978 to allow contract agreements between

county or municipal jails and private contractors for the operation or management of jails to be

Senate Bill 823/aSJC/aHHGAC – Page

2

for 5 years and allow for additional consecutive two-year extensions not to exceed a total of five

extensions.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

NMCD notes under current law the duration of a jail contract to privatize operation and

management is for five years and allows for one-year extensions not to exceed a total of five

extensions.

NMCD states the proposed legislation indirectly affects the department. NMCD reports the

department has contracts with several county and municipal jails to house state inmates, and

some of the jails enter into separate contracts with private vendors to operate their jails. NMCD

notes that the county or municipal jail’s private operator will handle and oversee inmates for up

to 15 years total instead of up to 10 years total under current law. NMCD reports the contracts

between jails and private contractors typically contain provisions that allow the parties to not

review the contract or not enter into any extension for both “no cause’ and “for cause."

Therefore, if the county or municipal jail is not satisfied with the private contractor’s services,

including how it oversees and handles NMCD inmates, it can essentially terminate the contract

by not entering into any extension.

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

DFA notes that New Mexico leads the nation in using private prison to house inmates according

to the U.S. Justice Department statistics on prisons in 2005. DFA reports the New Mexico

Corrections Department plans to add 240 more beds at the Guadalupe County Correctional

Facility in Santa Rosa and 600 beds at a private prison in Clayton scheduled to open in June

2008.

The New Mexico Corrections Department’s budget request for fiscal year 2008 asked for a $37.2

million increase over the department’s fiscal year 2007 operating budget. For fiscal year 2008,

the department requested an increase of $16.3 million to fund inmate beds in private prisons.

The NMCD budget for private prison beds has grown by 57.4 percent from fiscal year 2003

actual numbers to the department’s fiscal year 2008 budget request.

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