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

SPONSOR Rawson

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/21/08

HB

SHORT TITLE

Expand Third District Juvenile Drug Court

SB 12

ANALYST C. Sanchez

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY08

FY09

$0

$27.2

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Duplicates part of a larger Drug Court bill which will be a Courts, Corrections and Justice

Committee bill on behalf of the Judiciary but which has not yet been assigned a number.

SB 12 relates to SB10, Additional Third Judicial District Judgeship, because it appropriates

$217.535 from the General Fund to the Third Judicial District Court for an additional District

Judgeship for expenditure in fiscal year 2009.

SB12 relates to SB11, Additional Third District Court Staff, because it appropriates $392.4 from

the General Fund to the Third Judicial District Court for seven full-time positions for expenditure

in fiscal year 2009.

SB12 relates to HB 144, Additional Drug Court Resources, because it appropriates

$1026.0 to

expand family, juvenile, and adult drug courts in the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Seventh, Eighth,

Eleventh, Twelfth, and Thirteenth Judicial Districts.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC)

Department of Corrections (DOC)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 12 seeks to appropriate $27,200 to the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) to

enhance the juvenile drug court program at the Third Judicial District Court.

Senate Bill 12 – Page

2

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

SB 12 appropriates $27,200 in recurring general funds for a 0.5 FTE at the third judicial district

court. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY09 shall revert to

the general fund.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

According to the AOC, the Juvenile Drug Court program at the Third Judicial District is the

oldest juvenile drug court in New Mexico, having been in existence since 1997. During that time,

the program has worked with over 400 participants, ages 12 –18. In keeping with the nationally

recognized success of such drug court programs, the Third’s Juvenile Drug Court has high

success, graduation and educational rates for the most recent fiscal year. In FY07, the program

had a three-year-post-graduation recidivism rate of 15.5% (which equates to an 85% success rate

of its graduates) and a graduation rate of 68%. In addition, 100% of its program graduates were

either enrolled in school, had completed their GED or had graduated from high school. For the

AOC, compiling data on participants’ criminal and substance abuse history, program activities

and success after the program is time consuming but essential to ongoing operations of a drug

court program. Such data allows a program to review its operating procedures and philosophy

with an eye towards program improvements, provide reports to the judge and other criminal

justice entities involved in the program and provide the statutorily mandated performance

measures to the AOC and LFC.

The 0.5 FTE funded by this appropriation would be for a Data Entry Clerk position to maintain

the Juvenile Drug Court database and enter all new drug court data. The position will be

responsible for maintaining the database, entering data and furnishing data queries as required by

the Program Director, AOC and others. A program surveillance officer is currently attempting to

perform these database duties, but such data entry and ad hoc reporting activities are affecting

the surveillance officer’s ability to perform surveillance, a function essential to the successful

monitoring of the court-ordered activities of the participants.

CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP

This specific funding request will be included in a Drug Court Courts, Corrections and Justice

Committee bill on behalf of the Judiciary. That bill has not yet been assigned a number, but will

contain this funding request for the Third Judicial District along with funding requests for a large

number of other New Mexico drug court programs.

WHAT WILL BE THE CONSEQUENCES OF NOT ENACTING THIS BILL

Fewer drug offenders will receive the treatment and attention they need. Thus, they may violate

their probation or parole conditions and be sent to prison, thus impacting New Mexico’s prison

population.

CS/mt