Santa Fe County officials describe expanded MAT, withdrawal and reentry programs at adult detention facility as assaults decline

At a meeting of the Santa Fe County Board of County Commissioners, county detention officials outlined expanded medical, behavioral-health and reentry services at the adult detention facility and described steps meant to improve continuity of care for people leaving custody.

The presentation matters because nearly half of people booked into the facility are released within 48 hours, officials said, making it hard to connect detainees to community treatment. Leaders described in-custody medication-assisted treatment (MAT), substance-specific withdrawal protocols, a 30-day evidence-based “matrix” treatment pod and a reentry pod designed to reduce recidivism and connect people to housing, medication and community providers on release.

Warden Derek Williams told the commission the facility’s average daily population is about 300 and that intakes and releases have edged up in recent years. “We try to get them help while they’re in custody and then help set them up with our reentry team before they leave so they go back into the community a little better than what they came in as,” Williams said. He said the jail screens large numbers of arrestees for drugs and that of those tested, “76 percent of those who tested positive tested positive for 2 or more substances,” and that fentanyl showed up in about 48 percent of positives.

Anne Ryan, who represented the county Community Services Department, emphasized the practical challenge those short stays create: “Forty‑eight percent of those who enter the detention facility exit within 48 hours,” she said, and that rapid turnover makes “establishing continuity…