Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham gave an update Tuesday on the progress of her public health executive order regarding gun violence and illegal drug use.
Arrests and detentions rose last month, following the order issued on September 8th.
The population of the Metropolitan Detention Center rose 11% in September, and over a third of the people detained are in custody. Corrections Department Secretary Alisha Tafoya Lucero said the department took on some of MDC’s inmates.
“One of the things that our department is doing this week is taking on 48 of their most staff-intensive, violent, dangerous inmates from their population,” Tafoya Lucero said.
Juvenile detention also rose following a directive from the Children, Youth and Families Department that any youth offenders in possession of a firearm be detained. CYFD Acting Secretary Teresa Casados said of the 32 minors detained since the order was issued, 13 were detained because of the change, and the population of young people in detention has risen 16%.
“That saves these juvenile offenders’ lives,” Governor Lujan Grisham said. “They often lose their own lives in the crime that's being committed, and it's saving the lives of our men and women in uniform.”
Environment Department Secretary James Kenney said wastewater testing of schools in Bernalillo County for opioids will begin as soon as next week and that it will take two weeks for the results to come in.
Human Services Department Acting Secretary Kari Armijo said her staff has worked with healthcare providers to identify over 2,000 Medicaid members who had a recent emergency room visit for substance or alcohol use disorder and are not engaged in treatment. She said providers are now reaching out to those members to engage them in a treatment plan.
The Department of Public Safety also released a new dashboard with data related to the public health order.
This coverage is made possible by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and KUNM listeners.
