2025 New Mexico Statutes
Chapter 31 - Criminal Procedure
Article 21 - Sentence, Pardons and Paroles
Section 31-21-2 - Clothing, money and transportation furnished to prisoners on release from correctional facility.

Upon the release of any prisoner from a correctional facility of the corrections department:

A. the superintendent shall provide him with suitable clothing as required and:

(1) in the case of release on parole, transportation to his place of employment if within this state, or if not within this state, then to any place within this state; or

(2) in the case of all other types of release, transportation to his home, if within the state, or if not within this state, then to the place of his conviction or to any other place within the state; and

B. the superintendent may provide him with not more than one hundred dollars ($100) and, in case of an exceptional situation, with the prior approval of the secretary of corrections, an additional amount not to exceed three hundred fifty dollars ($350) for purchase of transportation to a location in another state within the continental limits of the United States.

History: Laws 1909, ch. 32, § 7; Code 1915, § 5081; C.S. 1929, § 130-169; Laws 1939, ch. 55, § 18; 1941 Comp., § 42-1708; Laws 1951, ch. 99, § 1; 1953 Comp., § 41-17-8; Laws 1967, ch. 30, § 1; 1969, ch. 10, § 1; 1977, ch. 145, § 1; 1982, ch. 59, § 1.

Statute's provisions mandatory. — The statute is mandatory. No exceptions are incorporated in it. The plain language of this statute makes it incumbent upon superintendent to provide clothing, money and transportation in these two instances. 1955 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 55-6122.

Effective upon prisoner's release. — Where prisoner had served the maximum sentence for the crime committed, the person is entitled to the items which the statute affords a prisoner upon expiration of his maximum sentence. 1955 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 55-6170.