SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration is preparing to select a private company that could end up operating a potentially much larger women’s prison to handle projected growth in the inmate population.
Corrections Secretary Gregg Marcantel said Thursday the agency is looking for a private prison operator that can house up to 850 inmates in the future.
The current prison in Grants has about 600 beds for female inmates and is run by Corrections Corporation of America.
The department is soliciting bids from companies because the state’s contract to use the CCA prison expires in June 2015. Contractors must submit their proposals by the end of the month.
Marcantel said the next contractor doesn’t need 850 beds available immediately, but must have the capability of handling future inmate growth.
The New Mexico Sentencing Commission has projected that the female inmate population will exceed 700 in 2017 and reach 800 in 2023. The number of female inmates has been increasing since 2010 while the male inmate population has remained relatively stable.
“Whoever wins the bid needs to have the capacity to be able to respect our population projections,” Marcantel told reporters after testifying before the Legislative Finance Committee about an expected $4 million budget shortfall this year.
“You have to be able to show strategically how you could deal with that growth,” Marcantel said. “We have to know that you have a commitment to making the investment into handling that, should we need it. We’re going to enforce that. We can’t find ourselves three years up the road saying, ’Well, we just don’t have room.’”
There are about 669 female inmates currently. Marcantel said the department has been forced to shift some female inmates to a nearby state prison for men, but he wants to end that.
A department spokesman, Alex Tomlin, had said earlier that the state isn’t immediately seeking a larger women’s prison.
Marcantel said the department also is looking at other options for coping with inmate growth, including developing a halfway house for female inmates on state property in Los Lunas.
Some inmates - both men and women - end up spending their parole in prison because there isn’t space in community-based programs. Women account for about 10 percent of the state’s total prison population.
Bette Fleishman, executive director of New Mexico Women’s Justice Project, expressed concern about the potential for a larger women’s prison.
She said in an interview that the state needs to focus on how to reduce its female inmate population. Many inmates are non-violent drug offenders and have children, she said.
To deal with the looming budget shortfall, Marcantel said, the agency is trying to cut costs and may have to push some expenses into the next fiscal year. The agency has a budget of nearly $270 million this year.
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