Corrections officials are concerned about a spike in the number of New Mexico’s female prisoners that has required them to house some women in a separate unit at the men’s prison in Grants.
Corrections Secretary Gregg Marcantel told the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday that a study is planned to figure out what’s causing the uptick.
“We’ve got to find out about it,” Marcantel said in an interview after the meeting. “We don’t want to be buying a firetruck once the fire starts.”
With the privately run women’s prison at Grants full, corrections officials in October moved some women to a separate building at the state-run men’s prison in the same town.
There were 30 women there as of Thursday, according to the department, and the capacity is 40.
The concern arose because the population was routinely exceeding the recommended level — about 580 — at the New Mexico Women’s Correctional Facility.
Prison populations shift constantly. Over the year that ended in October 2011, the population at the women’s prison peaked at 620, according to figures from the Department of Corrections provided by the Legislative Finance Committee.
The women’s prison as of Thursday had a population of 588, according to the department.
The New Mexico Sentencing Commission will provide $21,000 for a study to be done in conjunction with the department to determine what is causing the higher-than-usual numbers.
The range of possibilities includes more women spending their parole time in prison, rather than in the community, because of the difficulty of working out parole plans.
— This article appeared on page A6 of the Albuquerque Journal
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