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The cost of incarceration

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New Mexico has an incarceration rate of 733 per 100,000 people (including prisons, jails, immigration detention, and juvenile justice facilities), meaning that it locks up a higher percentage of its people than any democracy on earth. Read on to learn more about who is incarcerated in New Mexico and why.

13,000 people from New Mexico are behind bars

Additionally, the number of people impacted by county and city jails in New Mexico is much larger than the graph above would suggest, because people cycle through local jails relatively quickly. Each year, at least 49,000 different people are booked into local jails in New Mexico.

Rates of imprisonment have grown dramatically in the last 40 years

Also see these New Mexico graphs:

• total numbers rather than rates.
• Women’s prisons: Incarceration Rates | Total Population
• Men’s prisons: Incarceration Rates | Total Population

Today, New Mexico’s incarceration rates stand out internationally

In the U.S., incarceration extends beyond prisons and local jails to include other systems of confinement. The U.S. and state incarceration rates in this graph include people held by these other parts of the justice system, so they may be slightly higher than the commonly reported incarceration rates that only include prisons and jails. Details on the data are available in States of Incarceration: The Global Context. We also have a version of this graph focusing on the incarceration of women.

People of color are overrepresented in prisons and jails

New Mexico's criminal justice system is more than just its prisons and jails

The high cost of being incarcerated in New Mexico

Prisons and jails in New Mexico are increasingly shifting the cost of incarceration to people behind bars and their families, hiding the true economic costs of mass incarceration:

• Jails in New Mexico charge up to $3.15 for a 15-minute phone call, reaping profits for companies, while prisons charge $1.20 for a 15-minute call.
• New Mexico does not charge medical copays in prisons — and neither should other states.
• New Mexico is one of a handful of states that does not charge families to send money to their incarcerated loved one.
• People in New Mexico prisons must pay out of pocket for hygiene items and other basics like socks unless they have no money at all for at least a month.
• People in New Mexico prisons earn as little as 10¢ an hour for their work.
• New data: Low incomes — but high fees — for people on probation in New Mexico

Our other articles about New Mexico

• New Mexico's choice to criminalize "failure to appear" may be hurting public safety
• The cost of incarcerating older people is incredibly high, and their risk of reincarceration is incredibly low, yet 11% of people in New Mexico prisons are over the age of 55. Why is the state keeping so many older people locked up?
• Data from New Mexico and other jurisdictions shows: Releasing people pretrial doesn't harm public safety
• New Mexico makes it difficult or even risky for incarcerated journalists to tell their stories.
• New Mexico prisons are replacing incarcerated people's personal mail with scans, stifling family contact
• New Mexico prisons release about 3,528 people every year
• New Mexico hinders jury diversity by excluding people with felony records until they complete probation and parole sentences
• We graded the parole release systems of all 50 states — New Mexico gets an F-
• Who's helping the 20,673 women released from New Mexico correctional facilities each year?
• Prison-based gerrymandering on the campaign trail in New Mexico

Other resources

• Research on New Mexico in our Research Library

Data on COVID-19 in New Mexico jails and prisons

We gave New Mexico a "D-" grade in September 2021 for its response to the coronavirus in prisons, noting that:

• New Mexico is one of seven states that have vaccinated more than 80% of their incarcerated population.
• Nevertheless, New Mexico is one of 15 prison systems that does not have a policy making hand sanitizer widely available or providing free hygiene products — like soap — to incarcerated people.
• New Mexico failed to utilize one of the most obvious, and easiest, tools for reducing the prison population — stopping prison admissions for technical violations of probation and parole (which are not crimes).

For more detail, see our report States of Emergency. Or check out these other resources:

• How many COVID-19 cases in New Mexico communities can be linked to outbreaks in correctional facilities? (data from our report Mass Incarceration, COVID-19, and Community Spread)