County moves to close facility

Youth jail faces dwindling population and rising costs

The Santa Fe County Commission directed employees Tuesday evening to close the county’s juvenile detention center, citing rising costs and a dwindling number of inmates.

Commissioners Anna Hansen, Anna Hamilton, Rudy Garcia and Ed Moreno said they supported shutting the facility

— known as the Youth Development Program.

Commissioner Henry Roybal was on the fence, saying, “I’m not totally convinced that closure of the facility is in the county’s best interest.”

The next step will be informing the union that represents workers at the facility, Santa Fe County Manager Katherine Miller said. Commissioners will make a final decision on the facility’s closure at a future meeting.

The center held 357 youth in fiscal year 2017. That number fell to 293 in fiscal year 2019.

More out-of-county youth were held in the facility in fiscal year 2019 than county residents. The county receives $150 to $230 to house a juvenile from another part of the state, a fraction of the cost to operate the facility. Housing incarcerated youth elsewhere would save the county around $1.8 million annually, officials have said.

“I think the numbers speak for themselves,” Hamilton said. “It only makes sense to pursue a closure plan.”

The juvenile detention center in Bernalillo County would be the closest and most affordable facility to send incarcerated youth, Miller said.

Hansen agreed, saying Bernalillo County’s recent investments in facility upgrades will mean better benefits for youth.

“I think it is a positive thing for us to look towards closure,” Hansen said. “We can do it in a beneficial way not only for our employees but the children who are there.”

There are around 12 employees working at Santa Fe County’s juvenile detention facility, which has not been fully staffed for some time. Miller described the environment as being in a constant cycle of turnover.

“Those positions are hard to fill and hard to keep filled,” Miller said.

Employees may apply for other county positions, she said.

If the facility in Santa Fe County closes, that leaves juvenile detention centers in Bernalillo, Curry, Doña Ana, Lea and San Juan counties to serve the rest of the state.

Half of the state’s 14 juvenile detention centers have closed in the past 15 years. In 2019, facilities in Chaves and Luna counties closed, largely because of higher operating costs.

New Mexico’s 33 counties collectively spent $18.5 million on juvenile detention in fiscal year 2019. But the counties with youth detention centers were paying nearly 90 percent of the cost, according to an informal working group that is studying the issue.

Total bookings in New Mexico fell 40 percent during a four-year period ending in 2020.

“It’s hard to see one kid in the 24-man pod,” said Pablo Sedillo, the county’s Public Safety Department director. “It just doesn’t make any sense.”