A. The department shall have exclusive jurisdiction and authority to release an adjudicated delinquent child during the term of the child's commitment, consistent with the provisions of the Victims of Crime Act [31-26-1 NMSA 1978]. In determining whether to release a child, the department shall give due consideration to public safety, the extent to which the child has been rehabilitated, the adequacy and suitability of the proposed release plan and the needs and best interests of the child, including the child's need for behavioral health or medical services that are not available in facilities for adjudicated delinquent children.
B. The decision to grant or deny release shall be made by the secretary of children, youth and families or the secretary's designee. The department may impose such conditions of release as it deems appropriate.
C. A child is eligible for release any time after the entry of a judgment transferring legal custody to the department, and the department may consider a reasonable request for release from the child at any time sixty days after the child has been committed.
D. In the event release for a child is denied by the department after release is recommended for the child by the juvenile public safety advisory board, or release is approved by the department after the board has recommended that the child not be released, within ten days, the board may request a review of the decision by the court of the judicial district from which legal custody of the child was transferred, and the department shall transmit the child's records to the court. The court shall have jurisdiction to review the matter without conducting a formal hearing and to issue an order that either denies or grants release to the child. If the board requests review under this section, the child shall not be released until such time as the court has issued a decision. If the board does not petition the district court for review of the department's decision to grant or deny release within ten days of the department's decision, the department's decision shall be final, and the department shall release the child or continue the commitment in accordance with the terms of its decision.
E. The secretary of children, youth and families or the secretary's designee may review the case of any child upon the child's or the juvenile public safety advisory board's reasonable request at any time after release is denied.
Email
Print
