A. Any county or municipality may enter into an agreement, including an agreement with an independent contractor, to operate, or to provide and operate, jail facilities for the care and housing of prisoners; provided that, prior to July 1, 1987, no more than two pilot projects for operation, or provision and operation, of a jail by private independent contractors are hereby authorized in New Mexico; and further provided that the attorney general shall select, authorize and approve such pilot projects.

B. The attorney general shall monitor any pilot project and shall report to the first and second sessions of the thirty-seventh legislature and to the first session of the thirty-eighth legislature with analyses of the pilot projects, their success or failure, recommendations for modification or repeal of the law and suggestions for change in any future projects.

History: 1978 Comp., § 33-3-26, enacted by Laws 1984, ch. 22, § 17.

Guadalupe County correctional facility's contract with the board of commissioners of Guadalupe County, a contract which is specifically authorized by law, vested the facility's employees with the authority to act as jailers. State v. Young, 2004-NMSC-015, 135 N.M. 458, 90 P.3d 477.

Exemptions from Procurement Code. — A construction agreement that is entered into as part of an overall agreement for operation and provision of a jail pursuant to this section and Section 33-3-27 NMSA 1978 is exempt from the Procurement Code's requirements. The "financing and design" of a jail facility are also exempt from the Procurement Code, as long as the local public body does not have a direct contractual relationship with the parties responsible for designing and financing the facility. 1987 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 87-47.

Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references. — 60 Am. Jur. 2d Penal and Correctional Institutions §§ 8, 9, 11, 14.

72 C.J.S. Prisons and Rights of Prisoners § 3.