Santa Fe County reentry team says housing and warm handoffs are key to post-release success

The Santa Fe County adult detention facility reentry team described how partnerships, advance release planning and direct 'warm handoffs' to community programs underpin their efforts to help people return to the community.

Joshua Trujillo, a reentry specialist at the Santa Fe County Detention Center, said he brings lived experience to the role. "I'm formally an inmate of this facility," Trujillo said, adding that his work is "being able to kinda be that bridge" between a moment of desperation and a plan for recovery. Trujillo and his colleagues said that personal connection helps build trust with people while they are incarcerated.

Kevin Reel, a reentry specialist at the jail, defined reentry as what happens after someone is released and said the team's job is to "assist in making that process better." The staff said reentry work includes identifying release dates, preparing individualized plans and linking people to community resources so they are not scrambling at the moment of release.

The team said capacity constraints shape who receives intensive help: there are four reentry specialists serving a facility census the team described as about 250 people. Trujillo said the average jail stay is around four days, which makes outreach to short-term detainees difficult; staff said they rely on advance notices from the courts to plan interventions. "Judge Liddiard and his team are... sending over a docket for us of people that they expect that are gonna be getting released," Trujillo said, which gives reentry staff time to prepare.

Housing emerged as the top barrier. Aaron Garcia, who has worked for Santa Fe County for more than two decades and moved from security into reentry work, said long waiting lists and rental ads that exclude pets, children or people with criminal histories often leave returning residents without a viable place to stay. "The biggest thing facing us is the housing issue," Garcia said.

Trujillo and Reel emphasized transitional living programs and warm handoffs as effective responses. Trujillo said when people enter sober transitional housing or are met by a community partner at release and escorted directly to services, their chances of success rise substantially. "If we can do a warm handoff... somebody comes to the jail, we walk them out, they get into somebody's car... and they go somewhere with that individual," Reel said.

The team named community partners that visit the facility and attend the reentry fair, including Crossroads, Esperanza Shelter, New Mexico Reentry, Lifelink and Santa Fe Recovery Center. Trujillo said several partners now meet consistently with people inside the jail so released individuals have a familiar contact on the outside.

Staff shared examples of positive outcomes: people who obtained commercial driver's licenses, earned GEDs, reconnected with family and obtained employment in Santa Fe. Trujillo said, as a result of warm handoffs and sustained engagement, the percentage of people returning to custody is "under 10 percent," a claim the team presented as their observation rather than as an independently verified statistic.

The reentry fair — an event that brings multiple service providers into the facility — also prompted interest from the courts, the team said. Garcia said the courts are exploring ways to replicate elements of the fair inside the courtroom to improve coordination between judges, jail staff and community programs.

The podcast host closed by thanking the team and encouraging listeners to follow the county's podcast and radio channels for additional information. The episode focused on how collaborative, person-centered practices and advance planning can reduce barriers to successful reentry, with housing access and direct handoffs to services identified as the most persistent challenges.