Staff Reports
The former leader of Florida’s corrections agency was appointed Thursday to oversee a New Mexico public-private state prison system and parole division that is struggling with rising recidivism rates and overworked guards.
Julie Jones was chosen by new Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to oversee a corrections system with a prison population that has grown to 7,300. It has struggled to hire and retain officers and avoid growing overtime expenses.
Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, described Jones as someone capable of carrying out reforms while advocating for corrections officers. She noted Jones oversaw 24,000 employees and a $2.5 billion budget in Florida.
The governor and Jones highlighted an oversight approach that would emphasize support for corrections staff and efforts to help inmates return productively to society.
“We’re not going to warehouse people, we’re going to rehabilitate people,” Jones said. “The first place she (Lujan Grisham) wants me to start with is staff. Get those vacancies taken care of, support staff.”
About half of the state’s inmates are held at private facilities.
“Five of the 11 prisons are operated by the private sector, our job in the immediate is to make sure that those private sector prisons are running effectively and efficiently and appropriately and safely,” Lujan Grisham said. She said she wants a prompt report about the system.
Jones noted that in Florida she negotiated with three of the same companies that operate facilities in New Mexico.
The governor is seeking a $16 million spending increase for the corrections department, a 5-percent increase over current $305 million.
Lujan Grisham said she wants evaluations of the agency’s performance to include the use of solitary confinement and related suicide rates. She said solitary confinement “should be used in only the most extreme and narrow circumstances.”
The state supervises nearly 20,000 people on probation or parole.
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Material from the Associated Press was used in this post.
One comment
Bill
February 6, 2019 at 11:52 am
She accomplished very little , if anything, in florida, She did not even get close to keeping her statements. Officers are still way underpaid, the prisons are still severely understaffed. She did not return the system back to an 8 hour shift like she said she would. The system is no better than when she started, though in fairness it’s not much worse.She will be like the last 4 or 5 Secretaries Florida has had and be forgotten about completely in just a few months. Officers are still driving around in 20 plus year old vans that have enough miles to have driven around the world a dozen times times. Inmates are still riding around in these vans in july with no open windows , no fan and no a/c. sometimes just sitting for an hour waiting for their turn to enter the prison sally port gates. She bought just enough token vehicles to make an appearance of change for the public, but 9 out of 10 derelict vehicles remain.The new ones are normally only used for high profile transports, or for administrative purposes, the day to day gets the leftovers. I ma no inmate activist but there are inmates sleeping on top bunks under holes in the ceiling that have fiberglass insulation hanging out of them . The fans are so dirty in some camps at first glance you would assume its a filter, nope that’s 3 inches of dust. So yea she did very little if anything for the inmates or staff. She did find the money to change our uniforms system wide to black pants , black hats and grey shirts, wonderful colors for 95 degree days in the sunshine state.
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