The House committee gave a do-pass recommendation for House Bill 250, which would require correctional facilities to provide menstrual hygiene products at no cost to people in custody.

The measure, a statutory companion to a prior-year budget appropriation that already funds the purchases, would require facilities to establish policies ensuring access to pads, tampons and liners and allow people in custody to choose combinations of products to meet their needs. The secretary of corrections testified in support and said the department already provides products; advocates and service providers testified in favor, calling the change a dignity and public-health measure.

Sponsor Representative Anya Nornu said last year’s budget included an appropriation and this bill is the statutory language to make the practice permanent. “This would just ensure that products are available going forward,” the sponsor said.

Corrections Secretary Alicia Tafoya Lucero told the committee the department currently provides basic products and that roughly 80% of prison populations work in custodial jobs that enable commissary purchases; the bill would make supplies available without purchase. “We’re providing all of the available products to the person at the request,” she said.

Advocacy organizations — including Bold Futures, FreeFlow New Mexico and the Southwest Women’s Law Center — supported the bill, describing lack of access to menstrual products as stigmatizing and a barrier to dignity and health for people in custody.

Committee members probed operational details: who oversees distribution in county jails and privately run facilities, where line items in the corrections budget sit, whether products used in restrictive housing would be available, and whether wardens would be allowed to restrict quantities in cases of misuse. The sponsor and secretary said policy detail would remain at facility and warden discretion; the statute requires facilities to provide “sufficient” products but does not prescribe specific per-person quantities because flow varies.

Several members raised chemical-safety concerns. One legislator asked that menstrual products not contain PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances); the sponsor said she would support reconsideration of that issue after the statutory access requirement is enacted, noting product sourcing and cost constraints.

Committee action and votes
- Motion for a do-pass recommendation on House Bill 250 carried on a 3–2 roll call (Representative Block and Representative Lord recorded as No).

The bill directs correctional facilities to adopt policies to provide menstrual hygiene products without cost to people in custody, to include pads, tampons and liners in the available options, and to ensure access across prisons and jails covered by statute. The measure does not currently add recurring appropriations; the sponsor said purchases are funded from the corrections budget line for hygiene products.