New Mexico
New Mexico has no single corrections certifying body. The Corrections Department trains and certifies state correctional officers and probation and parole officers through its own academy, and no statewide certification of county detention officers was found. The Restricted Housing Act bars restricted housing for minors and pregnant people and limits it for people with serious mental disabilities. Since 2023 the State has expanded medication-assisted treatment behind bars, made cannabis prison contraband, ended parole supervision fees, and barred counties from immigration-detention contracts.
- Sources checked
- Part of
- Corrections Ledger
At a glance
- Certifying body
- No single body. State prison correctional officers and adult probation and parole officers are trained and certified by the Corrections Department’s New Mexico Corrections Training Academy (NMCTA) in Santa Fe, whose stated mission is to “train, certify, and develop all Corrections Officers and Probation and Parole Officers for the State of New Mexico” (NMCTA). The Law Enforcement Certification Board and the Law Enforcement Standards and Training Council certify and train police officers and public safety telecommunicators; see the New Mexico Officer Ledger page. The board’s rules (10.29 NMAC) as reviewed for this page did not include a detention or corrections officer certification, and no statewide certification of county detention officers was found.
- Statute
- NMSA 1978, 33-1-6(F) directs the secretary of corrections to establish, in cooperation with the correctional training academy, “a mandatory training program for correctional officers and guards as a prerequisite to officer certification” (Chapter 33, NMOneSource; last amended Laws 1981, ch. 132). The section names correctional officers and guards only; no statute or rule on certifying probation and parole officers was found. Related law: the Restricted Housing Act (Laws 2019, ch. 194); contraband in correctional facilities, NMSA 1978, 30-22-14 and 30-22-14.1; probation and parole, 31-20-5 and 31-21-10. Police certification is under the Law Enforcement Training Act, 29-7-1 et seq.
- Minimum standards
- Agency recruiting guidance, not statute. Correctional officer applicants must be U.S. citizens, at least 18 with no upper age limit, hold a high school diploma or equivalent, hold or be able to obtain a New Mexico driver’s license, and pass a background check, psychological evaluation, medical assessment, and drug screening; they must meet a physical agility exit standard to graduate from the academy. Probation and parole officer applicants must be U.S. citizens, hold a driver’s license or be able to obtain one, pass the same screenings, and meet education or experience requirements (correctional officer recruiting; probation and parole officer recruiting).
- Basic training
- Correctional officers attend a residential academy at NMCTA in Santa Fe: 8 weeks, 4 days a week, covering course work, CPR, and firearms. Probation and parole officers attend a 6-week academy that includes offender management, CPR, TASER, and baton, and must complete Basic Probation and Parole Officer Certification Training within 12 months of hire (NMCTA recruiting pages).
- In-service training
- The Corrections Department requires “annual re-certification” for probation and parole officers (recruiting page). No statutory in-service hour requirement for correctional or detention officers was found.
- Decertification
- None found. No decertification process or public database for correctional, detention, or probation and parole officers was found. The Law Enforcement Certification Board’s suspension and revocation powers and its public misconduct lookup apply to certified police officers and telecommunicators; see the Officer Ledger page.
- Jail standards
- No state agency that sets or inspects county jail standards was found. Jails must file quarterly restricted-housing reports with their county commission under the Restricted Housing Act. Since May 20, 2026, public bodies, including counties and sheriffs, may not hold people for federal civil immigration violations under contract (Laws 2026, ch. 5; entry below).
- Probation and parole officers
- Adult probation and parole officers are Corrections Department employees in the Probation and Parole Division, trained and certified by NMCTA (6-week academy, certification within 12 months of hire, annual re-certification). Since June 20, 2025, parolees no longer pay for parole services, and a probationer who is rated minimum risk by a validated instrument, has met all obligations, and has served half the term is automatically released (Laws 2025, ch. 79).
- Restrictive housing
- Restricted Housing Act (Laws 2019, ch. 194), covering prisons, jails, and juvenile and private facilities. “Restricted housing” means confinement for 22 or more hours a day without daily, meaningful, and sustained human interaction. It is barred for people under 18 and for anyone known to be pregnant. Since July 1, 2020, it is also barred for people with a serious mental disability, except during the first 5 consecutive days of confinement; for up to 48 hours to prevent an imminent threat of physical harm, with a written record, a transition plan, and notice to health services; or longer only for an ongoing threat to another person, under listed conditions. Each facility must report quarterly on everyone placed in restricted housing: prisons to the legislature, jails to the county commission. There is no statutory day cap for other people. This describes the 2019 act; later amendments could not be checked in NMOneSource.
- Corrections use of force
- Not determined. The Use of Force Procedures Act (Laws 2023, ch. 86) requires every law enforcement agency to have a use-of-force policy and requires officers to intervene in and report excessive force. Whether it reaches corrections or detention officers was not determined; see the Officer Ledger page for its terms. No statute on restraining pregnant incarcerated people was found.
Changes, 2023 to 2026
Immigrant Safety Act bars immigration-detention contracts and 287(g) agreements
“A public body shall not enter into, extend, renew or otherwise agree to be a party to an agreement to detain individuals for federal civil immigration violations.” This covers counties, sheriff’s departments, and anyone acting for them, including under intergovernmental service agreements. Existing agreements must end at the earliest date their terms allow, and public property may not be sold or leased for such detention. 287(g) agreements under 8 U.S.C. 1357(g) are barred, and existing ones must be terminated. The Attorney General or a district attorney may sue for injunctive or declaratory relief. Companion SB 273 (Laws 2026, ch. 70, partially vetoed) made fiscal year 2027 hold-harmless appropriations to Estancia, Grants, Milan, and Cibola, Otero, and Torrance counties for lost detention revenue.
For corrections staff: County detention staff may no longer hold civil immigration detainees under federal contracts or act as 287(g) immigration officers.
Parole supervision fees ended; automatic probation discharge for minimum-risk probationers
Parolees no longer have to pay for parole services as a condition of parole. New 31-20-5(C): “A defendant shall automatically be released from probation if the defendant: (1) is classified as a minimum level risk by a validated scoring instrument,” has met all probation obligations, and has completed at least half the probation term. The act also clarifies projected release dates for meritorious deductions.
For corrections staff: Probation and parole officers stop collecting parole supervision costs and must process automatic discharges for eligible minimum-risk probationers.
Cannabis becomes contraband in prisons, jails, and juvenile facilities
Contraband now includes “a controlled substance, as defined in the Controlled Substances Act, or cannabis, as defined in the Cannabis Regulation Act.” Bringing contraband into a prison is a third degree felony, and into a county or municipal jail a fourth degree felony. The exception covers controlled substances or medical cannabis brought in through regular facility channels under a licensed physician’s direction or prescription. The same change applies to juvenile detention and correctional facilities.
For corrections staff: Cannabis that is legal for adults outside is felony contraband on prison or jail grounds, including for staff and visitors.
Medication-assisted treatment expanded in prisons and county jails
The act creates the medication-assisted treatment for the incarcerated program fund, administered by the Human Services Department, to “assist all counties that operate correctional facilities to establish and operate medication-assisted treatment programs for people who are incarcerated in county correctional facilities.” The department had to adopt treatment rules by December 1, 2023, in consultation with the Corrections Department and county corrections administrators. By December 31, 2025, the Corrections Department must run a program to continue treatment for people who arrive at a state prison with a prescription, and by the end of fiscal year 2026 it must offer treatment to everyone in a state facility who needs it. Both departments report each year starting October 1, 2023.
For corrections staff: Jail and prison staff should expect dosing and continuity-of-care procedures under the Human Services Department rules.
Enacted, not yet in force, pending, and bills that did not pass
No enacted change was found awaiting its effective date. These bills were not enacted: SB 399 (2023, solitary confinement limits; died in Senate Health and Public Affairs) and HB 533 (2025, solitary confinement changes; died in House Consumer and Public Affairs); HB 292 (2026, New Mexico Prison Rape Elimination Act; committee substitute reported by House Judiciary, no floor passage); SB 180 (2026, detention center strip searches; no action after referral); HB 297 (2023, Corrections Advisory Board Act; passed the House 46 to 22, then died in Senate Judiciary); and SB 84 (2023) and SB 17 (2025), probation, parole, and parole board changes, both passed by both chambers and vetoed.
Bill status lines come from the legislature’s session lists as of October 20, 2026. Bills from the 2025 and 2026 special sessions were scanned by title only, and no separate sweep for missed enacted acts was possible because the legislation list page could not be queried.
Checked and unchanged
- Checked October 21, 2026: NMSA 1978, 33-1-6(F) in the official Chapter 33 PDF makes the Corrections Department’s mandatory training program a prerequisite to certification of correctional officers and guards. Not verified: any statute or rule on certifying probation and parole officers, and any decertification process. No corrections part was found in 10.14 NMAC (reserved) or 10.29 NMAC; a second check of 10.29 NMAC failed because the State Records Center page returned HTTP 404.
- Not counted: SB 192 (Laws 2019, ch. 73) covers pretrial release and good-time credit for pregnant or lactating people, not restraints.
Bills in the legislature
Bills in the current session whose title concerns corrections officers, jails, probation and parole, and conditions of confinement, found automatically in LegiScan's copy of the legislature's records and refreshed daily (last on October 21, 2026). This list is not reviewed by an editor and is not a summary of the bills; each links to the legislature's own page, which controls. Bills that become law are added to the dated entries above once checked.
- Introduced
HB292: Nm Prison Rape Elimination Act
Last action February 14, 2026: Action Postponed Indefinitely. 2026 Regular Session.
The law, section by section
Every section of the statutes and rules this page relies on that could be read from an official source, 57 in all, each linked to the official text. Headings are copied from the official tables of contents, checked October 21, 2026.
New Mexico Statutes Annotated 1978, Chapter 33, Articles 1 and 16: Corrections Department (Corrections Act) and Restricted Housing (Restricted Housing Act)Statute · 27 sections
Official text current through New Mexico Compilation Commission NMOneSource Chapter 33 PDF (file dated December 9, 2025), read 2026-10-21; 2026 session changes, if any, are not reflected. NMOneSource (the Compilation Commission's official site) renders through JavaScript; the section list was read from the Chapter 33 PDF that its viewer loads, with headings from the section captions. Repealed sections (33-1-4) omitted. Section links point to the Chapter 33 PDF. Article 1 is included because 33-1-6(F) is the statute the page could not locate: it directs the secretary of corrections to "establish in cooperation with the correctional training academy a mandatory training program for correctional officers and guards as a prerequisite to officer certification," and 33-1-10 gives correctional officers and probation and parole officers peace officer powers. NMSA 1978, 33-1-1 to 33-1-23; 33-16-1 to 33-16-7, official text
ARTICLE 1 Corrections Department
- 33-1-1 Short title.
- 33-1-2 Definitions.
- 33-1-3 Purpose.
- 33-1-4.1 Vulnerable offenders program; prevention of victimization.
- 33-1-4.2 Restraints on pregnant prisoners.
- 33-1-5 Director of corrections; employment.
- 33-1-6 Powers and duties of secretary.
- 33-1-7 Construction of applicable laws.
- 33-1-8 Earmarked funds.
- 33-1-9 Liberal interpretation.
- 33-1-10 Correctional officers; employees; acting as peace officers.
- 33-1-11 Correctional officer qualifications.
- 33-1-12 Corrections department; group life insurance.
- 33-1-17 Private contract.
- 33-1-18 Funds created.
- 33-1-19 Use of funds.
- 33-1-20 Transfers authorized.
- 33-1-21 Corrections department required to accept and redispense unused prescriptions; conditions of acceptance and redispensing.
- 33-1-22 Correctional facilities; care coordination.
- 33-1-23 Correctional facilities; breastfeeding and lactation policies.
ARTICLE 16 Restricted Housing
- 33-16-1 Short title.
- 33-16-2 Definitions.
- 33-16-3 Restrictions on the use of restricted housing.
- 33-16-4 Restrictions on the use of restricted housing; inmate with serious mental disability.
- 33-16-5 Correctional facilities; transparency and reporting.
- 33-16-6 Private correctional facilities; anticorruption and reporting.
- 33-16-7 Reports filed with legislative library.
New Mexico Statutes Annotated 1978, Chapter 29, Article 7: Law Enforcement Training (Law Enforcement Training Act)Statute · 26 sections
Official text current through New Mexico Compilation Commission NMOneSource Chapter 29 PDF (file dated August 18, 2026), read 2026-10-21. Section list read from the Chapter 29 PDF that the NMOneSource viewer loads; repealed sections (29-7-8, 29-7-9, 29-7-11) omitted. Same list as the Officer Ledger library, re-checked 2026-10-21. Section links point to the Chapter 29 PDF. NMSA 1978, 29-7-1 to 29-7-16, official text
ARTICLE 7 Law Enforcement Training
- 29-7-1 Short title.
- 29-7-2 Academy established.
- 29-7-3 New Mexico law enforcement standards and training council.
- 29-7-4 Powers and duties of council.
- 29-7-4.1 Domestic abuse incident training.
- 29-7-4.2 Child abuse incident training.
- 29-7-4.3 Law enforcement certification board; appointment; powers and duties; refusal to issue or denial, suspension or revocation of certification; suspension of certification for failure to meet required in-service training; confidentiality of investigations; law enforcement certification office created.
- 29-7-4.4 Law enforcement officer training.
- 29-7-5 Powers and duties of the director.
- 29-7-5.1 Removal of director.
- 29-7-6 Qualifications for certification.
- 29-7-6.1 County sheriffs; training requirement.
- 29-7-7 Definitions.
- 29-7-7.1 In-service law enforcement training; requirements; eligibility; penalties for failure to complete or report requirements.
- 29-7-7.2 Reports.
- 29-7-7.3 Ensuring child safety upon arrest; training.
- 29-7-7.4 Missing person and AMBER alert training.
- 29-7-7.5 Interaction with persons with mental impairments; training.
- 29-7-7.6 Law enforcement officers; naloxone rescue kit.
- 29-7-7.7 Tourniquet and trauma kit training and distribution.
- 29-7-10 Certification by waiver.
- 29-7-12 Charges; fund created; use.
- 29-7-13 Refusal, suspension or revocation of certification.
- 29-7-14 Law enforcement officers as school resource officers; training required.
- 29-7-15 Revoke police officer certification after conviction or making certain pleas.
- 29-7-16 Police officer database.
New Mexico Statutes Annotated 1978, Chapter 30, Article 22 (sections 30-22-14 and 30-22-14.1): contraband in places of imprisonmentStatute · 2 sections
Official text current through New Mexico Compilation Commission NMOneSource Chapter 30 PDF (file dated October 13, 2026), read 2026-10-21. Partial list: only the two sections the page cites. Section links point to the Chapter 30 PDF. NMSA 1978, 30-22-14, 30-22-14.1, official text
ARTICLE 22 Interference with Law Enforcement
- 30-22-14 Bringing contraband into places of imprisonment; penalties; definitions.
- 30-22-14.1 Bringing contraband into a juvenile detention facility or juvenile correctional facility; penalty.
New Mexico Statutes Annotated 1978, Chapter 31, Articles 20 and 21 (sections 31-20-5 and 31-21-10): probation and paroleStatute · 2 sections
Official text current through New Mexico Compilation Commission NMOneSource Chapter 31 PDF (file dated August 18, 2026), read 2026-10-21. Partial list: only the two sections the page cites. Section links point to the Chapter 31 PDF. NMSA 1978, 31-20-5, 31-21-10, official text
ARTICLE 20 Sentencing
- 31-20-5 Placing defendant on probation.
ARTICLE 21 Sentence, Pardons and Paroles
- 31-21-10 Parole authority and procedure.
No rules are listed: the page cites no Corrections Department rule. Law Enforcement Academy rules (10.29 NMAC) are listed in the Officer Ledger library.
USCLI's source monitor re-reads the 17 official sources cited on this page around the clock; 1 answered unchanged at their latest check. The oldest of those checks was on October 21, 2026.
Last updated October 21, 2026Source: United States Council for Law & InvestigationCite as: United States Council for Law & Investigation, “New Mexico corrections law: Corrections Ledger,” uscli.org/corrections-tracker/new-mexico (last updated October 21, 2026). Text licensed CC BY 4.0.