County juvenile offenders to continue to be held in Bernalillo County

BERNALILLO — Juvenile offenders will continue to be housed in Bernalillo County for Sandoval County cases.

County commissioners approved a new intergovernmental agreement Nov. 12 so the county's juvenile offenders have a designated place to go.

County Manager Wayne Johnson said during the commission meeting that the counties were in a joint powers agreement for juvenile offenders going back to 2010 but the new agreement is necessary because neither of the counties were following the JPA. The new agreement also lowers costs for the county, he said.

"It had kind of a complex scheme of Sandoval County providing about $1.2 million annually to Bernalillo County, and then for any of their detainees that were housed out of Bernalillo County or Sandoval, we would receive revenue back that over the years has dwindled to, well, almost zero, if that, and we were spending $1.2 million," he said.

According to the agreement the county will pay $700,000 annually for three beds at the Youth Services Center located in Albuquerque, totaling 26,280 bed hours annually, "so it's a considerable savings," he said.

Commissioner Josh Jones questioned how the JPA wasn't being followed.

Johnson said the JPA required both commissions to approve the budget annually, which never happened. "It really was just acting as an intergovernmental service agreement, which is what this is. We'll have a little cleanup work to do because the JPA technically still exists, but it really wasn't being followed as far as this governance structure."

The contract covers medical expenses and in the event the center is filled to capacity, Bernalillo will pay the cost of housing Sandoval County offenders at an alternative facility. If Sandoval County exhausts its bed hours, it will be required to pay the standard cost of care fee of $475 per day.

Johnson said San Juan County is being considered as a backup facility if Bernalillo is full.