An Albuquerque nonprofit that finds jobs for former inmates is bringing its playbook to Española

Richard Simmons’ decisions over the past couple of decades put him in and out of the prison system more than a half dozen times and led to his methamphetamine addiction.

But on Thursday, sitting in a corner of the New Mexico Reentry Center, a nonprofit focused on housing and job placement for formerly incarcerated people, Simmons had a revelation.

“I went to prison my senior year in high school. Finding a job with a record (like mine) feels impossible,” said Simmons, 55, tears in his eyes. “But I don’t have another one in me to go back. I’ve been seven times.”

Stories like Simmons’ aren’t uncommon in New Mexico, especially in Albuquerque.

A December report from the Legislative Finance Committee revealed that more than 5,864 individuals were incarcerated in the 2024 fiscal year across eight state prison facilities and two private detention centers. The report noted close to half would return to prison.

Organizations like the New Mexico Reentry Center and its executive director, Natasha Garcia, are trying to change that. Her nonprofit, entering its fifth year, is finding success in helping formerly incarcerated individuals find housing and jobs.

The nonprofit is now expanding its playbook to other parts of the state. The next stop? Española.

A new expansion

Garcia turned her life around about a decade ago, and by 2020, she knew her calling would be to help those who didn’t know how to help themselves.

“I started slamming dope at 17,” said Garcia, now 37. “I was going to prison for two years, and my public defender came back, and she got the judge to just give me a year (in) county and a year probation. ... I didn’t want to go but had a long rap sheet. And so I got out and I changed my life.”

Founded in Garcia’s kitchen during the COVID-19 pandemic, the New Mexico Reentry Center mostly makes its name known to people getting out of jail or prison by word of mouth and through its connections with other entities, like Bernalillo County’s Resource Re-entry Center.

Over the past few years, the center has placed roughly 600 people in jobs and homes.

The work caught the attention of Monica Abeita, executive director of the Santa Fe-based North Central New Mexico Economic Development District, which was looking at ways to use some of a Good Jobs Challenge grant — about $6.4 million — it received from the U.S. Economic Development Administration.

A portion of that grant, about $180,000, will help set up an office in Española to help formerly incarcerated workers find jobs in construction and health care in the northern part of the state.

“One of the groups that we had said we were going to focus on was formerly incarcerated folks and people coming out of substance abuse recovery,” Abeita said. “That’s one of the reasons the workforce participation rate in the north is low and it’s really an area for a lot of opportunity.”

The partnership began in earnest at the beginning of January and has already been on a fast track to implementation. She and her team last week identified an office in Española and are signing a year-long lease in a space next to another nonprofit, Inside Out Recovery.

Garcia is putting out feelers for a worker who can focus on intensive case management — not only helping people find work but also tracking down needed documents like driver’s licenses, birth certificates and social security cards. She’s also making connections with businesses, like clinics and construction companies, as well as the courts in the area.

The hope is to open the office by the end of January.

“It’s crunch time,” Garcia said. “So just building our network up there and letting the jails and parole (officers) know, ‘Hey, we’re out there now.’”

Getting back on track

Eileen Sandoval, 55, an intensive case manager with the New Mexico Reentry Center, knows more than most about the help it takes to get people coming out of jails and prisons back on track.

She herself was incarcerated, getting out in November 2023, the day before Thanksgiving. She, like others, was questioning what was next.

“They said, ‘Call this lady.’ I said, ‘She’s never gonna answer me.’ She answered me. … She explained everything and told me to be ready on Monday morning,” Sandoval said. “She went and got me an ID, social security card, birth certificate. Everything she did to help me get ahead, that’s what I do for them.”

Sandoval, who started working with Garcia in June, said of the more than 100 clients she helped last year, only about four returned to jail or prison. Many of them found work.

“If you don’t have money, you’re gonna go do whatever it is you know how to do to make that money,” Sandoval said. “But if you have that money in your pocket, you feel good about it.”

Garcia hopes that with the expansion to Española, she and her team will be able to help more people find work — and eventually success — that will keep them from returning to their old ways.

Garcia is also thinking bigger.

While the organization works off contracts and grants, she wants to use a self-sustaining model that includes creating businesses to fund the New Mexico Reentry Center’s work.

Garcia and her team are currently awaiting a new screen printer to make shirts with art by some of her clients. But she points to Los Angeles-based Homeboy Industries, also a nonprofit, which has more than a dozen social enterprises of its own, including a cafe and apparel company. That’s the ultimate goal.

“They’re making legit money. And you see all the homies tatted out, and they’re happy, they’re working,” Garcia said. “We need to get these businesses because then, boom, I’ll put them to work right away — and then we’ll be making money.”

While Garcia has yet to implement that self-sustaining model, she’s not far off. She’s already taken the first step: helping those in need.

Downstairs at the New Mexico Reentry Center’s Downtown offices, Simmons just finished applying for a job. Later that day, he was on his way to the dentist and then to Goodwill.

“No matter what that piece of paper says, I’m probably one of the most trustworthy people you’ll meet in your life,” Simmons said, pointing to a list of his criminal history. “Life out here don’t stop.”