By Anya Petrone Slepyan for The Daily Yonder.
Broadcast version by Roz Brown for New Mexico News Connection for the Public News Service/Daily Yonder Collaboration

When Vivian Montano was in jail, her favorite day of the week was Tuesday. That was the day she, along with a small group of other women, would be transported nearly 90 miles to the Olive Tree Creative Arts and Community Center for a day of behavioral health programming.

The Olive Tree “kept me going,” Montano said. Weekly therapy sessions, including moral recognition therapy and art therapy, helped Montano face the rest of the week in jail and prepare for her future. She refers to the staff of the center as her “guardian angels.”

“I’m so glad they were here because I don’t know where I would be without them,” Montano said.

The programming Montano attended is part of New Mexico’s RISE (Reach Intervene Support Engage) program, which was launched in 2019 to address the dearth of behavioral health services in county jails and detention centers across New Mexico. In addition to therapeutic services inside jail facilities, participating counties are also required to provide intensive case management and community re-entry services.

Since 2019, the program has served more 2,490 participants, according to New Mexico’s Behavioral Health Services Division (BHSD). The agency oversees $4 million in RISE grants awarded to 14 counties across the state.

Because 10 out of the 14 participating counties are rural, state administrators have emphasized the importance of avoiding one-size-fits-all solutions, said Anita Mesa, who supervises the program.

“The innovation of this program is allowing each county to tailor the program in a way that works for their community,” Mesa said.

RISE in Sierra County

This approach is critical to clients like Montano, who lives in Sierra County, a rural county in southwest New Mexico where behavioral health resources are scarce.

Sierra County residents have been disproportionately affected by the opioid and other drugs epidemic, with overdose rates well above state and national averages. And as the “sixth-poorest county in the second-poorest state, Sierra has few funding sources to combat its substance abuse problem,” according to the Bureau of Justice Assistance, a federal office that provides grant and policy assistance to state, local, and tribal justice systems.

Incarceration has mushroomed during the drug epidemic. From 2005-2015, Sierra County’s jail population increased 342%, the largest increase of any county in New Mexico, according to the Vera Institute.

But in the face of such dire statistics, Sierra County’s RISE program, implemented by the Olive Tree Creative Arts and Community Center, has risen to the challenge.

Lisa Daniel is the executive director of the Olive Tree. She says that meeting clients’ basic needs is the first step to ensuring success in the program. Food, state documentation, and housing are program priorities.

Often, when her clients get out of jail, “they have nowhere to go,” Daniel told the Daily Yonder. “And we can’t work on behavioral health or substance abuse issues if clients are worrying about what they’re going to eat and where they’re going to sleep.”

In 2020, the Olive Tree began a transitional housing program, which is the “crown jewel” of Sierra County’s services, according to Mesa. The center leases a motel, where clients can stay while they apply for public or private housing and participate in daily programming at the community center.

Of the 30 people who have participated in the transitional housing and 90-day behavioral health program, none has returned to jail, Daniel said.

Sierra County’s RISE program also offers other forms of support such as intensive case management. 

Katharine Elverum is a senior case manager and court liaison at the Olive Tree. She tracks each client’s case, advocates for them in court, and makes sure they can follow the conditions of their release. This is critical because failure to appear in court—regardless of lack of transportation or other issues beyond a client’s control—often results in their rearrest.

Elverum also helps clients enroll in state services, like Medicaid and food assistance, and get medical and psychiatric services.

This type of wrap-around support has been proven to reduce recidivism, or the number of incarcerated people who return to prison or jail. In 2019, when the RISE program began, Sierra County had a recidivism rate above 90%. Now, Daniel estimates a county-wide rate of around 75%. Among RISE program participants, the estimated recidivism rate drops to 30%, Daniel said.

The RISE program has facilitated a similar reduction in recidivism rates across participating counties. For example, in 2023 rural Roosevelt County reported a 60% reduction in recidivism among men who participated in the RISE program and a 70% reduction among women participants.

Sustained programming and support is the key to reducing recidivism, according to Virginia Lee, Sierra County’s grant manager.

Providing programming in custody was an important start, but once people were released, much of their progress was left at the door, Lee told the Daily Yonder. “There was no follow-up, no medication. They were doing well in the programs, but without wraparound services, they just went right back to where they were.”

A Rural Model

The Olive Tree also implements several other programs and grants, including the Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Abuse Program (COSSAP), Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD), and Behavioral Health Intervention Zone (BHIZ). The center also supports Sierra County’s Crisis Response Team.

Additionally, the center provides GED tutoring and classes in life skills, anger management, art therapy, and cognitive behavioral therapy to community members at large.

The Olive Tree wasn’t conceived as a one-stop shop for behavioral health in Sierra County. But as the county’s needs became clear, the mission evolved. “The original concept was that we would be a hub, and a resource to direct traffic,” said Elverum. “Well, we ended up absorbing a lot of the traffic.”

That’s partly because Sierra County has few other resources or practitioners. The county has neither a homeless shelter nor a crisis/detox center. Though there are a handful of therapists, there are no practicing psychologists or psychiatrists in Sierra County, according to Olive Tree staff.

Transportation is one of the key challenges for Olive Tree and its clients, who must often travel to Las Cruces (76 miles) or even Albuquerque (148 miles) for services. And because Sierra County has no jail, Olive Tree’s incarcerated clients must be driven nearly 90 miles from the detention center in neighboring Luna County to participate in the center’s programming.

The Olive Tree is located in Truth or Consequences, the seat of Sierra County, which covers more than 4,000 square miles. One of the Center’s employees is based 20 miles away in Arrey, an unincorporated community of several hundred. Daniel is also hoping to hire a mobile community health worker, who will further help fill gaps in small and remote communities in the county.

All of this adds up to an original and innovative model for rural behavioral health services, though Daniel and the rest of the Olive Tree staff are not ones to toot their own horn.

“We became a model only because we had no other resources, and we had to figure out how to make it work,” Daniel Said.

And make it work they have, at least according to Montano. “This program has really helped a lot of people who are going through all sorts of things. And I thank God for [the staff] because they saved my life.”


Anya Petrone Slepyan wrote this article for The Daily Yonder.

A New Mexico resident will attend President Joe Biden's State of the Union address tonight as legislation is pending to expand the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.

The measure was passed in 1990, with money going to residents of the Southwest who were harmed, either from uranium mining or atomic tests in 1945. The original legislation included "downwinders" in Arizona, Utah and Nevada. But New Mexico was left out, despite the state being home to the world's first atomic bomb testing and explosion.

Tina Cordova, co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, has made it her life's work to get New Mexico families compensated.

"I've been working for 19 years to bring attention to the negative health effects the people of New Mexico suffered," Cordova explained. "The Trinity bomb was detonated in the middle of our state and adjacent to a bunch of towns where 13,000 people lived in a 50-mile radius."

Cordova was invited to the annual Presidential address by Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M. In the coming days, the Senate is scheduled to vote on legislation to reauthorize the act, now scheduled to end in June.

Cordova pointed out the more than 30-year-old compensation program was an admission of guilt on the part of the government but left out many of those harmed. She knows families who have lost relatives to cancer, some within 10 years of the nuclear bomb testing.

"I just hope that people who know I'm present, realize that we will never give up the fight," Cordova asserted. "We will work very hard to get the RECA amendments passed this year, but if by some chance that doesn't happen, we will continue to fight this fight for justice as long as it takes."

This Sunday, the Hollywood blockbuster, Oppenheimer, about the creation of the atomic bomb, is a favorite to win best picture at the 2024 Academy Awards. The film did not address effects to those downwind of the bombing site.


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A new report finds Connecticut's recently released prison population is facing reentry challenges.

The State of Reentry report found resources and services are lacking for formerly incarcerated people. Between 2022 and 2023, 14% of the population said they would be homeless upon release.

It is just the tip of the iceberg as many of the state's Reentry Welcome Centers reported most of their clients were housing unstable.

Scott Wilderman, president and CEO of Career Resources, said it can be attributed to numerous factors including the stigma of being an ex-offender.

"We have to do a better job of educating and working with landlords and try to encourage them to give individuals a second chance," Wilderman contended. "There's no doubt about that. The sad part is, with returning citizens or ex-offenders, there's really no such thing as an ex-offender since everybody always sees the offense."

He thinks Connecticut should focus more on justice reinvestment. Other criminal justice advocates have called for using funds saved by closing prisons to invest in reentry centers. The centers are not funded by the state and have been subsisting on American Rescue Plan funds. When the money expires at the end of the year, it is uncertain how they will be able to help people with life after prison.

Given it is the third year of the report, Wilderman acknowledged there have not been many changes, but he found it surprising, noting there has been plenty of time to make improvements, specifically in areas like education.

"We know education is the great equalizer and having a high school diploma is essential," Wilderman asserted. "It just opens a lot more doors for an individual as it's often a requirement for employment, or in some cases going after further education or job training."

The report noted 66% of incarcerated people with sentences ending in six months said they did not have a high school diploma. Enrollment is down in programs for incarcerated people to complete their degrees. One reason for it is Connecticut's ongoing teacher shortage.


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After a five-year court battle, New Jersey's medical aid-in-dying law has been affirmed by the state's Supreme Court, which rejected an attempt to overturn the statute.

Signed by the governor in 2019, the law was soon challenged by a physician based on religious, personal and constitutional grounds. It allows mentally capable, terminally ill adults with six months or less to live to get a prescription they can use to end their lives.

Dr. Paul Bryman, a hospice and palliative care physician, is an advocate for medical aid in dying for people who feel their suffering is intolerable.

"I think it's important that that option is available for people who choose to avail themselves of it. It's not for everyone and it's someone's choice whether they want to use that. No one's forced to do it," he explained.

Bryman practices geriatric and internal medicine and believes there are adequate legal safeguards to make sure patients are protected. The law was briefly suspended in August 2019, but reinstated 13 days later as court proceedings continued.

The nonprofit group Compassion & Choices expressed support for the decision as well as expanded and improved end-of-life care options.

Alan Howard, Compassion & Choices attorney, urged the justices to uphold a lower court's ruling.

"We are grateful that the Supreme Court recognized that there are terminally ill New Jersey residents who are counting on this end-of-life care option to bring them peace of mind during this difficult time," said Howard. "Dying people should have this compassionate option to peacefully end their suffering if it becomes unbearable."

Bryman added a total of 186 terminally ill New Jerseyans have used the medical aid-in-dying law and believes the court made the right decision.

"I'm glad that it's finally over and that this law's available for people in New Jersey who have the right to their own health-care decisions," he said.

In addition to New Jersey, Washington, D.C., and nine other states, which represent 22% of all Americans, have authorized medical aid in dying.