Legislators confront rising numbers of incarcerated women
40 percent of female inmates are in prison for drug offenses, higher than other states
In February, a record 797 women were incarcerated in New Mexico state prisons, a number that marked the height of a nearly two-decade climb in the number of female inmates.
As of May 18, data show, the population of women in prison in the state had increased by 47 percent since the start of 2001.
Linda Freeman, of the New Mexico Sentencing Commission, spoke to lawmakers about the issue last week during a legislative hearing.
“We’ve seen a pretty aggressive increase,” she told members of the Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee.
As those numbers climb, Freeman said, her researchers have seen an uptick in the percentage of women being sent to prison for drug and property offenses compared to
other crimes. That statistic, and other data on state prison trends that Freeman presented, sparked questions from some legislators about whether New Mexico is too punitive when it comes to drug offenses.
“What I’m interested in ascertaining is how much money we spend as a state per year incarcerating people for simple possession?” asked Sen. Jacob Candelaria, D-Albuquerque. “… That’s what we’re spending taxpayer dollars on — destroying families, destroying communities because somebody has an addiction to heroin. And it doesn’t seem to be solving the problem.”
Freeman’s data show that almost 40 percent of female inmates in New Mexico are incarcerated for drug offenses. That’s significantly higher than the average for state prisons nationwide, which is closer to 25 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics that Freeman used for comparison.
Asked by Candelaria whether those charges were mostly related to drug possession or trafficking, Freeman said the Sentencing Commission has noticed an increase in the latter.
“There has been a shift from possession to trafficking, and that increases the length of stay for females,” Freeman said. “What’s not clear to me is how much of that is driven by charging.”
Candelaria wondered whether many of those prison stays were actually warranted, especially when it comes to people convicted of possessing minor quantities of drugs like heroin and methamphetamine.
“Are we looking at traffickers as those people who are actually carrying around … a substantial amount, that one can infer they’re going to go sell to kids on the corner?” He asked. “Or is this a person who has an ounce or less, and is dealing on the side to feed their habit, and it’s part of the same sort of addictive behavior that is being driven by their own personal addiction? That’s an important piece of this.”
Freeman said the commission hopes to take a deeper look at the increase in women prisoners. The sentencing commission expects the female prison population will continue to grow through 2020.
But it’s not just the prison population that’s increasing. Freeman said county jail female populations have increased as well. Since 2010, she said, the portion of jail inmates who are women has gone from 13 percent to 18 percent.
That figure also is higher than the national average, she said, which was 14.5 percent at the end of 2016.
Another point in Freeman’s presentation that raised concern among lawmakers was the relatively stable number of inmates who are reincarcerated following a parole violation.
In the last decade, an average
of 31 percent of admissions into women’s prisons were for parole violations. For men, an average of 33 percent of admissions were for parole violations, Freeman said.
State Sen. Sander Rue, R-Albuquerque, said that seemed like “low-hanging fruit” when it comes to improving the criminal justice system.
“That’s something that we really need to look at,” Rue said. “If we’re looking at prison populations and opportunities to make room for people who really belong in the system — serious, violent offenders — when we look at some of these other folks, when they come out of the system, are we doing a good enough job getting them back into society, helping them to be productive citizens?”
Rep. Moe Maestas, D-Albuquerque, suggested a different approach to drug use, what he sees as a common violation of parole, might help keep more parolees from returning to prison.
“The criminal justice system is just not meant to deal with relapse,” Maestas said. “Every drug addict relapses. It’s how you respond to a relapse that can break the cycle of addiction.”