Santa Fe Looks at New Release Policies to Prevent Prisoner Deaths

Officials in Santa Fe, N.M., are considering changes to how inmates are released from the county jail after several were fatally struck by cars while walking back to town after being released, often at night.

At a hearing before Santa Fe County commissioners on Tuesday, jail officials listed several policy changes that they were considering in the wake of a New York Times article that revealed that more people had died after being released from the jail than previously known. The proposals include entering into a partnership with Uber or Lyft, providing vouchers for public transit and giving inmates reflective gear to make them more visible on the remote highway that leads into town.

All five county commissioners said something should be done to make the situation safer, and several said they would consider urging the New Mexico Department of Transportation to extend an existing pedestrian trail several miles farther toward the jail.

“It’s definitely necessary, and I think that we could probably get behind that pretty quickly,” Commissioner Justin S. Greene said of the request to the state.

One commissioner suggested temporarily reducing the speed limit of the highway until more could be done.

The Times report revealed that five people in the past decade had been fatally struck by cars on the highway, N.M. 14, shortly after being released from the Santa Fe County Adult Correctional Facility, four of them since March 2020. Some of the people had not made it a mile before they were killed. Several others were injured.