{"id":30373,"date":"2011-06-30T02:23:42","date_gmt":"2011-06-30T08:23:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=30373"},"modified":"2011-07-01T08:14:06","modified_gmt":"2011-07-01T14:14:06","slug":"das-scramble-to-save-victim-notification-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/06\/das-scramble-to-save-victim-notification-system\/","title":{"rendered":"DAs scramble to save victim notification system"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Gov. Susana Martinez\u2019s spokesman says the funding bill was flawed in part because, in addition to paying for the automated notification system, it would have created \u201cnew state employee positions\u201d that \u201care arguably unnecessary for an automated system.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

When she was a district attorney, Gov. Susana Martinez<\/a> was instrumental in bringing to New Mexico an automated victim notification system<\/a> about defendants\u2019 incarceration status and court hearings.<\/p>\n

So many of the state\u2019s district attorneys were disappointed earlier this year when she pocket vetoed a bill<\/a> that would have funded continuation of the program at the end of a federal grant by imposing a fee on jail inmates\u2019 phone calls.<\/p>\n

Now, with federal funding for the system ending today, district attorneys are scrambling to try to find a way to keep the system going.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe district attorneys were absolutely dumbfounded when we found out what happened,\u201d 13th Judicial District Attorney Lemuel Martinez<\/a> said about Martinez\u2019s veto. He said he still doesn\u2019t understand.<\/p>\n

Scott Darnell, spokesman for Susana Martinez, said the bill was flawed in several ways. In addition to paying for the automated notification system, he said it would have created \u201cnew state employee positions\u201d that \u201care arguably unnecessary for an automated system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Darnell said the bill had a sunset provision, so it didn\u2019t ensure long-term continuation of the program. And the governor, he said, wants to ensure that district attorneys use the system to supplement, not replace, the personal relationships between victims\u2019 advocates and victims.<\/p>\n

One idea district attorneys are exploring to keep the system going involves obtaining funding from county governments, and Darnell said the governor is supportive of that effort.<\/p>\n

A fee on inmates’ phone calls<\/h3>\n

Martinez has promised to not raise taxes during her tenure. The governor hasn\u2019t made an explicit promise to not raise fees, but she didn\u2019t sign any new fees into law during her first legislative session.<\/p>\n

The victim notification bill Martinez vetoed would have funded the system by implementing a fee of up to 35 cents per call a jail inmate makes to anyone other than his or her attorney. State Sen. Rod Adair<\/a>, R-Roswell and the sponsor of the bill, said Martinez told him she didn\u2019t sign it because of the fee. He\u2019s disappointed by the governor\u2019s veto.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was my goal \u2013 to have the cost of the system be paid by a fee, rather than by taxes, to have the costs borne by those who make the system necessary, rather than forcing all taxpayers to, in essence, be taxed directly to pay for the outside costs of a system that few of them are involved in making necessary,\u201d Adair said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe problem is the governor is refusing to raise any revenue at all through taxes, through loopholes, through fees.\u201d – State Rep. Mimi Stewart<\/h4>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

State Rep. Mimi Stewart<\/a>, D-Albuquerque, who sponsored the House version of the legislation, said it was frustrating that the governor vetoed the bill after she and others worked hard to gather widespread support.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem is the governor is refusing to raise any revenue at all through taxes, through loopholes, through fees,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cSo it will be hard to come up with a compromise with her when what we need is about $1 million to keep this system going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bipartisan support for funding proposal<\/h3>\n

Called VINE, or Victim Information and Notification Everyday<\/a>, the system has two components. The first tracks inmates housed in county jails and lets people sign up for phone, text or e-mail alerts when they\u2019re released. The second tracks criminal court cases and sends notification about hearings.<\/p>\n

Both are designed to keep crime victims informed and safe. They are also used by family members of those charged with crimes, witnesses, prosecutors, defense attorneys, the media, and others.<\/p>\n

The system is in place for about two thirds of New Mexico jails and most district courts.<\/p>\n

The fiscal impact report<\/a> for Adair\u2019s bill said it would have provided as much as $1 million a year over two years to pay for the system, though the approved fee of 35 cents per call could have been reduced if that much wasn\u2019t needed. The bill required legislative oversight of the program.<\/p>\n

It had the backing of the state\u2019s district attorneys, the Public Regulation Commission, and a bipartisan majority of lawmakers in the House and Senate.<\/p>\n

Kelly Kuenstler<\/a>, head of the state district attorney\u2019s association, said use of the VINE courts and jails components costs the state about $500,000 a year, thanks in part to a significant discount the jails get for banding together. Then, Kuenstler said, there\u2019s an additional $225,000-a-year cost for \u201cthe staff required to maintain the system, train the users and be the statewide administrator.\u201d<\/p>\n

That $225,000 is the money with which the governor takes issue.<\/p>\n

Martinez knows the VINE system well. As a district attorney, she was instrumental in getting the program implemented in New Mexico. It started with the Do\u00f1a Ana County Detention Center in 2003 thanks to a legislative appropriation from Sen. Mary Kay Papen and then-Sen. Leonard Lee Rawson. Martinez them implemented it in her office, paying for it out of her existing budget.<\/p>\n

Martinez pushed the rest of the state\u2019s district attorneys to take the system statewide. Several years ago the district attorneys secured Department of Justice grants totaling $1.6 million to expand it to other jails and district courts.<\/p>\n

The state currently has no funding in place to keep the system going after today.<\/p>\n

Company offers two months free<\/h3>\n

The company that owns the VINE system, Appriss<\/a>, has offered to let the district attorneys keep the VINE system going for the months of July and August free of charge. The district attorneys agreed to keep the jail component going through August but opted against extending the court component, according to Kuenstler.<\/p>\n

E-mails obtained by NMPolitics.net in response to a records request reveal disagreement among the district attorneys about whether to keep the court component going through August.<\/p>\n

Kuenstler said her office is planning to develop a \u201cdiluted version\u201d of the court component in-house that would still provide text and e-mail notification of court hearings, but not phone calls. She said the majority of district attorneys voted to shut down the VINE court component because they can\u2019t afford to sustain it beyond the two months Appriss is offering for free.<\/p>\n

Some aren\u2019t ready to give up on the VINE court component. Ninth Judicial District Attorney Matt Chandler<\/a> sent an e-mail to the other district attorneys on Monday urging them to reconsider and take Appriss up on its offer of two free months. He\u2019s trying to buy more time to figure out a way to keep the courts component of VINE going.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes no sense to shut down victim notification prematurely when it\u2019s being offered at no cost to anyone throughout July and August,\u201d he wrote in the e-mail.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt makes no sense to shut down victim notification prematurely when it\u2019s being offered at no cost to anyone throughout July and August.\u201d – District Attorney Matt Chandler<\/h4>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

Lemuel Martinez said he\u2019s among those who supports Chandler\u2019s efforts.<\/p>\n

Ideas for funding the system<\/h3>\n

As for the jail component of VINE, Kuenstler met with the New Mexico Association of Counties<\/a> recently to discuss the possibility of counties funding it. The association\u2019s executive director, Paul Gutierrez, said he doesn\u2019t know if that\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will need to follow up with some of the county managers to see if they have the funds available,\u201d he said. \u201cWe did support the (district attorney\u2019s association) with the legislation they had introduced. I don\u2019t know if the counties will have the funds to pay for the program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chandler is working on a proposal to split the cost between every district attorney in the state, every county, and possibly the Department of Corrections, which could make each agency responsible for only a few hundred dollars a month.<\/p>\n

Others spoke with NMPolitics.net about the possibility of new legislation next year or even later this year during the redistricting special session if they can get the governor\u2019s support for it. But Martinez\u2019s office hasn\u2019t responded to a follow-up question about whether there is a proposal for state funding for VINE that she would support.<\/p>\n

Adair said he hopes officials can find a way to keep the system going, but whether he\u2019d sponsor legislation again is a \u201cdifficult question\u201d because he doesn\u2019t know what the governor would support.<\/p>\n

\u201cA state-of-the-art victim notification system is absolutely a public safety issue in the modern world,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is a life-saving and cost-saving requirement for New Mexicans.\u00a0We must have such a system, either paid for by those whose crimes make the system necessary, or we must have it paid for by all taxpayers through direct taxation applied to everyone, regardless of whether they commit crimes or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Adair said he would not sponsor legislation that pays for the system with a tax on the general public.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never supported a tax increase of any kind,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A subheadline in this article previously read \u201cA fee on inmates\u201d but has been updated to more accurately reflect that it\u2019s \u201cA fee on inmates\u2019 phone calls.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gov. Susana Martinez pocket vetoed a bill earlier this year that would have funded a victim notification system she helped bring to New Mexico years ago as a district attorney. With federal funding for the system ending today, the state\u2019s district attorneys are scrambling to try to find a way to keep the system going.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[142,107],"class_list":["post-30373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-crime","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30373\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}