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 of care very, very challenging.” Ryan described local efforts to train reentry staff on the Connect/Unite Us referrals platform, to formalize a Behavioral Health Leadership Council, and to use contractual priorities to steer community providers toward serving people leaving custody.

Clinical staff described treatment and overdose-prevention measures in detail. Rebecca Othello Granger, a psychiatric nurse practitioner, said the jail uses the 48-hour window to provide acute psychiatric assessment and short-term stabilization and that about 20 percent of patients receive antipsychotics (a proxy, she said, for the seriously mentally ill population). “We have benzos, cocaine, ecstasy, marijuana,” Granger said, and warned the facility is seeing a rise in fentanyl powder and polysubstance presentations. She said the facility is using long-acting injectable antipsychotics where clinically appropriate and working to ensure medication continuation after release.

Health services administrator Ashley Hannon summarized the facility’s MAT and withdrawal protocols, naming products and approaches used inside the jail: a seven-day buprenorphine sublingual induction the presentation labeled “Subsolve,” the long‑acting buprenorphine injection SUBLOCADE, methadone continuation in partnership with outside opioid-treatment programs, and oral and injectable naltrexone (VIVITROL) when appropriate. Hannon said the jail carries a newer product the presentation named “OPV” (described in the presentation as approved in 2023 for reversal of synthetic opioids) and has trained custody staff to administer it; she said the facility is using OPV as part of its overdose-response toolkit and that the OPV doses can be longer acting than multiple doses of naloxone in the facility’s experience.

Mark Boschelli, behavioral health manager, reviewed the matrix program and reentry pod. The matrix is a condensed, 30‑day therapeutic-community model with cognitive‑behavioral and motivational interviewing elements, 15 hours per week of structured programming, and a graduation ceremony. Boschelli said 48 men and 23 women have graduated the matrix; among graduates who also entered reentry housing, 43 of 63 (68.3 percent) had not returned to custody at the time of the presentation. He described internships and hiring pipelines that bring behavioral-health clinicians into the jail workforce.

Officials detailed partnerships that support continuity of care: Presbyterian Medical Services (PMS) and Albuquerque Health Services offer on‑site MAT and referrals; a recently awarded two‑year grant with PMS funds two staff who work in the facility; New Mexico Reentry (a peer‑run organization) and local providers such as Santa Fe Recovery, Life Link, Four Winds and RISE provide housing and navigation; and the county is a pilot site for the Medicaid 1115 waiver that removes the “inmate exclusion” for certain prerelease services, officials said.

Transportation and pedestrian safety on State Highway 14 were raised repeatedly. Deputy staff described the facility’s current release and transport procedures — detainees are offered a phone call and offered van transport to a Camino Entrada bus stop; the facility logged 12 facility transports in January and 30 in April — and noted limits on the jail’s authority after a person is released. Commissioners and staff said Highway 14 lacks sidewalks, lighting and safe shoulders and encouraged outreach to the New Mexico Department of Transportation. Commissioner remarks referenced five pedestrian incidents over the past decade as the impetus for near‑term steps such as reflective vests and looking into ride-hailing vouchers.

Officials described capital and staffing plans tied to reentry expansion. County staff said revenue bonds for the adult detention facility mature in February 2027, and requested $250,000 for FY2026 to design a planned remodel and modest expansion to create a more welcoming waiting area for people awaiting transportation and to build space for reentry services. The board did not take a vote on the design request during the presentation; it was presented as part of staff planning.

Why it matters now: officials said the facility is functioning as a de‑facto medical and behavioral‑health access point for many people, a role that requires coordination with community providers, payers and state programs. Commissioners asked for more detailed data on who is released when, transport outcomes, and the breakdown of charges (violent, property, drug) among detainees; staff said those data sets exist and will be provided to the board.

“I think we can find solutions together,” Commissioner Rebecca Bustamante said, urging both near‑term safety steps along Highway 14 and a longer conversation about financing and scaling successful programs. The board scheduled a county tour of the facility later the same day.