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BERNALILLO — The Sandoval County Commission approved funds for a local detoxification program during its Feb. 26 meeting.
Jayme Espinoza, director of community services, asks for the funds annually for the next fiscal year. These funds will go towards fiscal year 26, and Espinoza said they pay for about 90% of the county’s DWI department.
“I’ll start with our first resolution here with our detox funds. That’s $150,000 even. That is the maximum every year that only certain counties can apply for. Sandoval County is one of those seven counties that provide the detox treatment for our community and residents that are DWI offenders,” she said.
Espinoza detailed how many people use the program.
“What I have is for our ending numbers for FY 2024 from July 2022 to July of 2023 or FY 2023. The ending number that we ended with was 726 clients that we saw through last year through our DWI program,” she said. “Through this year, as of today, we are already at 733, so we’ve already beat last year’s (numbers).”
She noted that the cases increase each year. Commissioners asked if there was any correlation to rising DWI rates and if there was a way to see which parts of the county were contributing the most to the program. She said she didn’t have a correlation between the two but she said DWI cases are definitely increasing. As for demographics, she said she would have to request that from the courts.
“The majority of them are I-25 and U.S. 550 between Bernalillo and Jemez,” she said.
The second resolution regarded another grant and its distribution in the amount of $528,000.
“That primarily focuses on the treatment aspect of DWI, so it funds all of our our counselors, our operations related to the treatment of DWI offenders, and that also includes domestic violence offenders,” Espinoza said.
Commissioners passed both resolutions unanimously.
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The Sandoval County DWI program provides treatment to all first offenders, those with multiple DWI offenses, all domestic violence offenders, and offenders referred to the program for anger management and other substance abuse issues. A total of 29 in-house groups are provided per week addressing substance abuse and domestic violence issues, which provide treatment to more than 280 offenders per week.
Treatment program includes the following groups:
• 9 domestic violence groups (52-week program)
• 16 multiple offender groups (26-week program)
• 1 specialized group for offenders with additional needs (16-week program)
• 9 anger management groups (26-week program)
• 16 substance abuse groups (12-week program)
• 1 after-care group
For more information about the programs, visit sandovalcountynm.gov.
