New Mexico Youths Held Longer than Necessary in Detention Centers Because of Lack of Mental Health Services

Some 700 New Mexico adolescents were kept an average of 16 extra days each in county juvenile detention centers because of a lack of open slots in mental-health facilities, the Albuquerque Journal reports. The youths originally arrived at detention centers because of law violations, but administrators later determined they needed mental health treatment and should be transferred to care facilities, the Journal reports. At the request of Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Rep. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), the House Committee on Government Reform's Special Investigations Division last December conducted telephone interviews with administrators of 14 county juvenile detention centers in New Mexico. Researchers found that 718 minors had to stay in detention facilities an additional 11,410 days in total. "Administrators of juvenile justice centers in New Mexico [say] poor access to mental-health services has caused hundreds of youth to remain incarcerated for no valid law-enforcement purpose," the report says. The report determined that "a major cause of this problem appears to be the failing New Mexico Medicaid program." However, Marty Eckert, a spokesperson for the New Mexico Human Services Department, which oversees Medicaid, said the program has been improved. Dr. Lisa Forrest, an Albuquerque-based child psychiatrist, added that the changes have made it "easier to get authorization for mental-health services and have increased payments to cover those services." She said, "The state of affairs right now is that there are no beds to put people in." Still, Bingaman said that the report's "conclusions are disturbing," adding, "I think they make a strong case for the proposition we are not getting the problem solved in New Mexico." The Journal reports that Bingaman has sent letters to HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson and Deputy Secretary Robin Otten asking the department to "address concerns raised by the report" (Jadrnak, Albuquerque Journal, 3/19).