To:
Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham
Chair Patricia Lundstrom, Vice Chair Nathan Small, and Members of House Appropriations & Finance Committee

Cc: Governor's Senior Advisor, Dominic Gabello
       Governor's Chief of Staff, Matthew Garcia
       Secretary of New Mexico Corrections Department, Alicia Tafoya Lucero

Date: March 7, 2021

Subject: Please support legislation that begins to end our dependence on private prisons contractors in New Mexico
______________________________________________________________________

Dear Governor Lujan Grisham:

With the prison population falling year after year, the time to end private prisons in New Mexico is now. By March 2020, even before the COVID-19 pandemic impacted court adjudications and early releases, the prison population had already dropped by 6.9% since December 2018.

This decline is expected to continue as admissions have also fallen to historic lows as a result of forward thinking criminal justice reforms. In addition, the New Mexico Department of Corrections is currently reviewing classification levels which have historically been flawed to overstate the classification level. Appropriate classification will result in lower recidivism, which will also impact new admissions.  

Federal policy also indicates that three of the eight private detention facilities in New Mexico are in trouble. The prisons in Torrance, Cibola and Otero Counties, which house individuals on behalf of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Marshals Service are at 14.5% of their capacity. President Biden has instructed the Department of Justice, which oversees the U.S. Marshals Service, to not renew its contracts with private prisons. In addition, ICE's detained population is at a 24-year low and unlikely to increase due to a shift in national policy against detaining migrants.

Every private prison company can terminate their contracts with as little as 90 days notice as prison populations fall below profitable levels, putting communities and the state in a crisis planning mode. Companies like CoreCivic, GEO Group and Management & Training Corporation have all threatened or have actually pulled out in the past four years, including 2017 (Torrance County), 2019 (Town of Clayton), and 2020 (Otero County).

We have the opportunity to ensure New Mexico stays ahead of this trend. Planning the phase out of private prisons in our state provides us the opportunity to determine how we address the decline of that industry to better protect the wellbeing of workers and the surrounding communities.

There are two bills before the House Appropriations and Finance Committee, HB 40 and HB 352. Each bill takes a different approach. HB 40 would:

* Create a clear timeline in which private prisons would be phased out (by June 30, 2026), though many will likely shut down before then.
* Prohibit the operation and management of a detention facility in New Mexico by a private contractor after June 30, 2026.
* Immediately prohibit state or local governments from entering into new contracts or expanding existing agreements between private contractors and New Mexico government bodies.
* Create a task force to study and make recommendations to the state about how to manage the phase out of private prisons.

HB 352 takes a narrower approach but includes the fundamental premise that we need to start planning now and that we cannot allow private prisons to expand in New Mexico. That bill will:

* Immediately prohibit state or local governments from entering into new contracts or expanding existing agreements between private contractors and New Mexico government bodies.
* Allow contract extensions that are permitted under law and if the parties agree.
* Create a task force to study and make recommendations to the state about how to manage the phase out of private prisons.  

HB 40 and HB 352 are both common sense approaches to an issue that can no longer be ignored. As the New Mexico Legislature also considers many other bills addressing mass incarceration and criminal justice reform, these bills are in line with the growing trend nationally that we need to take bold actions to move to a brighter future.

We urge Governor Lujan Grisham to support HB 40 or HB 352. Governor Lujan Grisham can take the step to put us on the right path and end the state's harmful and tenuous dependency on an industry that is economically unsustainable, morally problematic, and counterproductive in reducing recidivism.


Sincerely,


The undersigned individuals and organizations.

AFSCME Council 18: New Mexico and Colorado,
American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico (ACLU-NM),
American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) - New Mexico,
Center for Civic Policy (CCP),
New Mexico Comunidades en Acción y de Fé (CAFé),
New Mexico Dream Team,
New Mexico Immigrant Law Center (NMILC),
Santa Fe Dreamers Project (SFDP),
Santa Fe Faith Network for Immigrant Justice (SFNIJ)
(additional organizations  and individuals will be added)