This month the Albuquerque Journal reported that New Mexico is among six states facing potentially dangerous shortages of prison guards, as prison populations throughout most of the United States are projected to grow in the coming months. According to the Santa Fe New Mexican, New Mexico’s prisons will reach 98% capacity by July of 2016. The state’s prison population grew 6% between 2011 and 2016, and is expected to rise another 5% in the next two years. The Department of Corrections hopes to use targeted raises to attract and retain officers at its public facilities.
I called Steve Allen, a corrections reform advocate with the American Civil Liberties Union in New Mexico. I asked Allen about the problem, its causes and consequences, and the strategies that advocates for corrections reform hope to see employed to combat the twin issues of overcrowding and high staff vacancy in New Mexico prisons.