◆ Counties across state seek funds to transport, care for state prisoners.

An organization that represents New Mexico county governments is pushing the Legislature to increase reimbursements for the rising costs of transporting state prisoners and providing behavioral health care to state inmates housed in county jails and youth centers.

The Santa Fe-based nonprofit New Mexico Counties is seeking a more than $6 million increase to the County Detention Facility Reimbursement Fund, which now stands at $2.3 million a year.

State law allows county sheriff ’s offices to charge the state per diem and mileage expenses for deputies who transport prisoners, but the payment is only required if the Legislature budgets enough money, which it never has, said Grace Philips, an attorney for New Mexico Counties.

“In general, detention is a huge drain on county budgets,” Philips said. She estimated detention costs account for about $1 of every $3 spent by county governments.

“It is costing us a lot more to house these people than the state is paying, and the state has a legal obligation to pay, so we want them to fund it fully,” Philips added.

Philips gave a presentation about the group’s legislative priorities to the interim Legislative Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee in October. The 27 lawmakers on the committee either declined to comment on whether they would take action on the request or did not return phone calls seeking comment.

New Mexico Counties has been pushing for the state to increase its prisoner cost reimbursements for the past 13 years.

In 2007, the organization, along with San Miguel County, filed a lawsuit against the state Department of Corrections, seeking an order for reimbursements to counties of all costs associated with housing state prisoners. The New Mexico Court of Appeals eventually ruled in the case that the state is responsible for the costs of housing its prisoners, regardless of where they are held. As costs to address prisoner needs have risen, however, the amount of money available for county reimbursements has fallen in six of the last 12 years.

It reached a peak of $5.1 million in 2008 and has been at $2.3 million since 2017. Those funds are divvied among 27 counties with correctional facilities based on a formula rather than direct billing.

Santa Fe County’s share in fiscal year 2019 was $169,066, spokeswoman Carmelina Hart said in an email.

New Mexico Counties is asking for a fund of $8.4 million to reimburse county jails and sheriff ’s offices in 2021, Philips said. The number is based on a threeyear average of state prisoner costs to counties, compiled by the New Mexico Sentencing Commission.

Hart said Santa Fe County doesn’t track direct costs for housing and transporting state prisoners. County data shows 27 state prisoners spent 285 days at the county jail in 2018, at a basic cost of $85 per prisoner per day, or a total of $25,225. That amount rose in 2019 to $28,830 for 22 state prisoners to spend 306 days in the jail. The totals don’t include any additional expenses for prisoners, such as medical care.

Costs to house prisoners will continue to rise as costs for medical care increase, Philips said.

The push for increased spending on behavioral health services for inmates in both adult and juvenile facilities is aimed at lowering health care costs.

“They’re separated, but they’re complimentary,” Philips said, “and I think it sort of demonstrates how big of a financial burden the detention facilities are on counties but how critically important from a public health perspective it is that we do what we can.

“Counties and detention should never be the portal to care,” she added.

The state Human Services Department received $2.5 million in the current fiscal year to provide behavioral health services at jails in rural communities and wants to see that allocation renewed and expanded by $1.5 million.

So far, the program is operating at jails in Grant, San Juan, San Miguel, Sierra and Valencia counties, said Neal Bowen, the director of the Behavioral Health Services Division.

While the additional $1.5 million would not be enough to fund services in every county, Bowen said, it would allow the Human Services Department to expand the program to three or four more counties.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s spending plan includes the expanded funding for behavioral health care in rural jails, but the Legislative Finance Committee did not include the spending in its proposed budget.