New Mexico’s top state prosecutor says he will begin a formal investigation into what led up to the death of an Albuquerque teenager and the broader problems at the state’s beleaguered child welfare agency.

Searchlight New Mexico reports that earlier this month, 16-year-old Jaydun Garcia took his own life in a former Albuquerque halfway house built for girls transitioning out of juvenile detention.

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez held a new conference on Tuesday morning announcing a formal investigation into Garcia’s death, but also other incidents of children who have been harmed while in Children, Youth and Families Department custody.

“The State of New Mexico failed to protect this child,” Torrez said. “The State of New Mexico has failed to honor its legal and moral obligations under a variety of legal agreements that they have entered into.”

Torrez said the public has very little information about what happened to Garcia, who was responsible for him in the days and weeks before his death and the decisions made and resources dedicated to preventing it.

“How can we expect to improve that system if we don’t know what happened, if we don’t have answers, if we don’t have transparency?” Torrez said. “I’m prepared to test the law in this space, and I’m prepared to advocate fundamentally for a change in the law, if that is what’s required.”

The investigation is not limited to Garcia’s death but will extend to state agencies charged with protecting children, Torrez said.

The Department of Justice will conduct “a comprehensive and wide-ranging investigation into various reports of children who have been referred to CYFD” as victims of abuse and neglect, placed in congregate care and other facilities, improperly housed at CYFD offices, sexually assaulted in those offices, or abused by armed guards in those offices, Torrez said.

“Enough is enough,” Torrez said. “I will not tolerate the excuses, the assurances, I think we have all grown tired of waking up and hearing about another child who’s been injured, another child who’s been hurt, another child in state custody who’s been killed, and for that reason, the New Mexico Department of Justice will initiate a formal investigation into the facts and circumstances that led up to the death Jaydun Garcia.”

New Mexico Child First Network Founder and Executive Director Maralyn Beck, a former foster parent, joined Torrez at the news conference, saying Garcia’s death was preventable.

“The signs were there, and we should not be housing our children in warehouses of neglect like congregate care,” Beck said. “One single call to Child Protective Services should have prevented this.”

She said what foster children need to heal from their trauma is homes, and excellent parenting through committed, developmentally informed relationships with adults.

“It is through transparency, it is through peeling back the layer of confidentiality to figure out what happened,” Beck said.

Disability Rights New Mexico Chief Executive Officer Gary Housepian also appeared alongside Torrez and Beck during the news conference. In a news release afterwards, Housepian said in a statement that Garcia’s death is “a devastating reminder of what happens when vulnerable children — especially those with disabilities or behavioral health needs — fall through the cracks of a broken system.”

“We’ve been raising alarms for years about placements in congregate settings, and it’s long past time for a comprehensive, independent investigation. We stand ready to coordinate our investigation of this death, monitoring of facilities and to support the Attorney General in demanding the transparency and accountability these children and youth deserve,” Housepian said.

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Probe will guide new oversight office

The broader investigation into other incidents will develop a detailed record of events leading up to the deaths or great bodily injury of children under CYFD’s supervision but also the policies, procedures and people involved, the Department of Justice said in the news release.

The investigation will take several months, Torrez said. Its ultimate objective, he said, is to prepare a comprehensive report for the incoming Office of the Child Advocate, which New Mexico’s lawmakers created in the most recent legislative session and is administratively attached to Torrez’s agency.

That report will be “a blueprint of the issues that have plagued this agency and this state for decades,” Torrez said.

The Department of Justice said in a news release that the new office was created “despite Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s attempt to veto its funding.” Even though Lujan Grisham signed the legislation to create the office, she vetoed $1.65 million that would have covered the start-up costs to create it, and she and the AG’s office traded barbs over the bill.

Torrez said he does not yet know if CYFD will resist the investigation, and he hopes the governor’s rhetoric around the legislation and the line-item veto are “not indicative of the administration’s position moving forward.”

“I won’t be deterred in any way by the resistance of other stakeholders in this situation,” he said. “My hope is that can be avoided.”

Source NM sent emails to spokespeople for CYFD and the governor seeking comment and will update this story as necessary.

Torrez’s agency is also calling on current and former case workers, foster families, and youth impacted by the system to come forward with information by going to the “Get Help” page on its website or by calling (505) 490-4060. He also encouraged the public to sign up to become foster parents themselves.

He said he’s committed to getting the answers necessary “to move this state and this agency in a new direction.”

“It is my hope that by shining a light on the problems inside of the agency and on the problems that New Mexico has in protecting its most vulnerable children, that we will begin the necessary process of fulfilling not only our legal obligation to our most vulnerable citizens, but fulfilling our moral obligation to do right by these kids.”