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HOUSE BILL 533
57
TH LEGISLATURE
-
STATE
OF
NEW
MEXICO
-
FIRST SESSION
,
2025
INTRODUCED BY
Tara L. Lujan
AN ACT
RELATING TO CORRECTIONS; AMENDING THE RESTRICTED HOUSING ACT;
EXPANDING THE AGE LIMIT ON SOLITARY CONFINEMENT; REDUCING THE
NUMBER OF HOURS AND DAYS AN INMATE MAY BE HELD IN SOLITARY
CONFINEMENT.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:
SECTION 1. Section 33-16-1 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 2019,
Chapter 194, Section 1) is amended to read:
"33-16-1. SHORT TITLE.--[This act ] Chapter 33, Article 16
NMSA 1978 may be cited as the "Restricted Housing Act"."
SECTION 2. Section 33-16-2 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 2019,
Chapter 194, Section 2) is amended to read:
"33-16-2. DEFINITIONS.--As used in the Restricted Housing
Act:
A. "correctional facility" means a jail, prison or
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other detention facility that is used for the confinement of
adult or juvenile persons, whether operated by the state or a
political subdivision of the state or a private contractor on
behalf of the state or a political subdivision of the state;
B. "inmate" means an adult or juvenile person who
is under sentence to or confined in a correctional facility;
C. "meaningful human contact" means in-person or
virtual interactions with family, peers, counselors, educators
or other persons for purposes other than institutional
discipline;
[C.] D. "restricted housing", whether instituted
pursuant to disciplinary, administrative, inmate classification
or other action, means confinement of an inmate locked in a
cell or similar living quarters in a correctional facility for
[twenty-two] seventeen or more hours each day without any
rehabilitative programming that includes daily, meaningful [and
sustained] human [interaction] contact; and
[D.] E. "serious mental disability" means:
(1) a serious mental illness, including
schizophrenia, psychosis, major depression and bipolar
disorder; or
(2) having a significant functional impairment
along with a brain injury, organic brain syndrome or
intellectual disability."
SECTION 3. Section 33-16-3 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 2019,
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Chapter 194, Section 3) is amended to read:
"33-16-3. RESTRICTIONS ON THE USE OF RESTRICTED
HOUSING.--
A. An inmate who is younger than [eighteen ] twenty-
one or older than fifty-five years of age shall not be placed
in restricted housing.
B. An inmate who is known to be pregnant or in the
first eight weeks of the postpartum recovery period after
giving birth shall not be placed in restricted housing.
C. An inmate who belongs to a vulnerable
population, including an inmate who identifies as lesbian, gay,
bisexual, transgender or queer, shall not be placed in
restricted housing involuntarily or for protective custody.
D. An inmate in a facility operated by the
corrections department or by a contractor with the department
shall not be housed in restricted housing for more than fifteen
consecutive days or more than ninety days total in a twelve-
month period.
E. If a warden, jail administrator or other person
in charge of a correctional facility finds that an inmate
requires housing in restricted housing for more than ninety
days total in a twelve-month period, the person shall:
(1) make a written record of the facts and
circumstances that necessitated the inmate's placement in
restricted housing; and
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(2) prepare a written action plan describing
how the facility will transition the inmate out of restricted
housing at the earliest opportunity.
F. An inmate in a jail of a political subdivision
of the state shall not be held in restricted housing during the
first three days of incarceration in that jail, except when the
findings of a suicide screening instrument conclude that the
inmate is not likely to engage in harm to self.
G. Correctional facilities shall not implement or
enforce any policy or practice that is functionally equivalent
to restricted housing, solitary confinement or other term,
regardless of the name or designation of such policy or
practice of such action or housing unit. "
SECTION 4. Section 33-16-5 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 2019,
Chapter 194, Section 5) is amended to read:
"33-16-5. CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES--TRANSPARENCY AND
REPORTING.--
A. Every three months, every correctional facility
shall:
(1) produce a report that includes:
(a) the name, inmate identification ,
age, gender and ethnicity of every inmate who was placed in
restricted housing during the previous three months, including
every inmate who is in restricted housing at the time the
report is produced; and
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[(b) the reason restricted housing was
instituted for each inmate listed in the report; and
(c)] (b) the dates on which each inmate
was placed in and released from restricted housing during the
previous three months; and
(2) submit a report prepared in accordance
with this subsection to the:
(a) legislature, if the correctional
facility is a prison; and
(b) board of county commissioners of the
county in which the correctional facility is located, if the
facility is a jail.
B. The corrections department shall post to its
public website every report produced pursuant to Subsection A
of this section."
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