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| N.M. Looks at Expanding Cruces Prison |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 10/30/2002 |
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The New Mexico Corrections Department is proposing an expansion of the state's prison system to help relieve inmate overcrowding, and department officials asked lawmakers on Thursday to consider ways to slow the growth trend. 'Our male inmate population is exploding,' Deputy Secretary Dona Wilpolt-Cook told the Legislative Finance Committee. Corrections Secretary Jim Burleson said the department planned to ask the Legislature next year to finance a 400-bed expansion at the state prison near Las Cruces. It will cost at least $12 million. The department also wants an additional 102 beds at a mental-health treatment center at Los Lunas. The cost is about $13 million. Burleson estimated that New Mexico needs to add 1,000 to 1,100 prison beds over the next three or four years. He recommended using privately operated prisons as well as expanding state-owned prisons. 'We're going to need some more beds or let some more folks go,' said Burleson. He suggested that the early release of nonviolent inmates could free some prison space and recommended that the Legislature consider revamping sentencing laws to slow the rate of growth of inmates being sent to prison. A new governor will take office in January, and prison overcrowding will be one of the costly and pressing problems facing the new administration. |
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