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NMWJP Recent Accomplishments
IMPROVING THE HEALTH OF INCARCERATED WOMEN
• Helped to develop the New Mexico Comprehensive State Plan for Improving Services to Substance Abusing Pregnant Women and their Families
• Fostered collaborations between the New Mexico University School of Medicine, the Metropolitan Detention Center and New Mexico Department of Health to provide family planning classes and on-site family planning services to the women incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Center
• Helped to develop the recommendations of the Drug Policy Task Force lead by the Robert Wood Johnson Center for Health Policy at the University of New Mexico
• Helped to create a Strategic Plan for Girls in the Juvenile Justice System that addresses the need for services to this population across the continuum of care
• Helped to repealed the “Guilty but Mentally Ill” verdict form, which unfairly discriminated against women who have mental health disorders and go to trial on serious criminal charges
• Helped to develop recommendation for a strategic plan to reduce the number of people with mental illnesses who require law enforcement intervention
   
HELPING RETURNING CITIZENS WITH REENTRY ISSUES
• Helped citizens with felony convictions become voters by:(1) holding a voter registration drive at the Metropolitan Detention Center;(2) identifying misstatements of the law regarding ex-offender voting rights in the current parolee handbook; (3) preparing accurate training materials for use by parole officers; and (4) submitting suggestions for the Corrections Department to encourage voter registration
• Helped enact the first state-wide "ban the box" statute in the United States thatprohibits a public employer from asking about felony convictions on a job application forms
• Helped enact a memorial asking our federal congressional delegation to repeal HUD regulations that prevent ex-offenders from accessing federally supported housing projects
   
CURRENT PROJECTS
• Implementing task force recommendations addressing the needs of substance using pregnant women,girls in the juvenile justice system, and men and women struggling with addiction and mental health issueswhile enmeshed in the criminal justice system
• Reducing the use of solitary confinement in New Mexico’s prisons, jails and youth detention centers
• Making Medically Assisted Treatment for addiction more accessible by getting Methadone and Suboxone covered by Medicaid
• Working with the Drug Policy Alliance to build public awareness about syringe exchange, Good Samaritan Laws, Narcan while buildingsupport for innovative programs, such as wet housing, safe injection site programs, and the legalization of marijuana
• Working with the New Mexico Justice Coalition to ensure that the Public Defender Department becomes an independent entity overseen by a bipartisan board or commission
• Creating a curriculum for a peer-to-peer Legal Literacy program for women incarcerated in Grants Correctional Facility to address the legal issues that prevent women from successfully returning to the communities following incarceration
• Running a public awareness campaign to ensure the successful passage of an expungement law in New Mexico