{"id":503189,"date":"2018-01-15T17:39:53","date_gmt":"2018-01-16T00:39:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=503189"},"modified":"2018-01-15T17:39:53","modified_gmt":"2018-01-16T00:39:53","slug":"nms-skeletal-criminal-justice-system-needs-a-cash-infusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/01\/nms-skeletal-criminal-justice-system-needs-a-cash-infusion\/","title":{"rendered":"NM\u2019s skeletal criminal justice system needs a cash infusion"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_405938\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-405938\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Roundhouse-1-771x471.jpg\" alt=\"Roundhouse\" width=\"771\" height=\"471\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Roundhouse-1-771x471.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Roundhouse-1-336x205.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Roundhouse-1-768x469.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Roundhouse-1-1170x714.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Roundhouse-1.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Roundhouse in Santa Fe.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>New Mexico\u2019s judges are the lowest paid in the country. Its chronically underfunded public defenders struggle to represent clients in one of the nation\u2019s poorest states. And prosecutors say they need more money to blunt increases in crime.<\/p>\n<p>This situation awaits New Mexico state lawmakers when they convene Tuesday for the 2018 session in Santa Fe.<\/p>\n<p>But, for the first time in years, thanks to a projected $200 million to $300 million more in revenue than anticipated, the Legislature could spread serious money around New Mexico\u2019s skeletal criminal justice system after recent budget cuts and years of austerity.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article comes from\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmindepth.com\/2018\/01\/13\/nms-skeletal-criminal-justice-system-needs-a-cash-infusion\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New Mexico In Depth<\/a>. Sign up for\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmindepth.us6.list-manage.com\/subscribe?u=1d2ab093d81b992e50978b363&amp;id=9294743d38\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">their newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>The question is how much. Prosecutors, judges and public defenders, along with their allies in the Legislature, will compete for dollars during the 2018 session with other needy programs and services such as <a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/01\/will-lawmakers-make-2018-the-year-of-the-child\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">early childhood education<\/a> and health care as New Mexico emerges from a serious cash shortage.<\/p>\n<p>The money comes as a relief to legislators focused on criminal justice, but concerns loom over how the funds will be divvied up, particularly as rising crime rates around the state dominate headlines, the evening news and political rhetoric.<\/p>\n<p>New Mexico climbed to No. 1 in the nation for property crimes and No. 2 for violent crimes in 2017, according to an annual report issued in September by the FBI, based on self-reported figures from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. New Mexico\u2019s steady increases in crime rates are largely driven by Albuquerque, the state\u2019s most populous city.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously we have a real problem here, and we\u2019re going to have to do whatever it takes, including using some of that money, to put more people in prison and jail,\u201d said state Rep. Bill Rehm, an Albuquerque Republican and retired sheriff \u2019s captain.<\/p>\n<p>Rehm has prefiled several familiar bills in advance of the session to increase penalties on criminals, eliminate the statute of limitations for second-degree murder and other measures. Similar proposals have failed in recent years in the Democrat-controlled Legislature.<\/p>\n<h3>More money for prosecutors proposed by governor<\/h3>\n<p>Gov. Susana Martinez also has indicated she wants to increase the budget for the Bernalillo County District Attorney\u2019s Office by $6.5 million \u2014 a 33 percent hike. Her request is more than the $6 million first-year District Attorney Raul Torrez is asking for.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s by far the largest increase Martinez has ever recommended for the office, and the first time she\u2019s sought to boost its funding at all since her reelection in 2014, according to figures from the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC).<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cNew Mexicans deserve to be safe. People in Albuquerque deserve to feel safe,\u201d she said at an October news conference, flanked by law enforcement, according to an Albuquerque Journal story.<\/p>\n<p>Martinez did not respond to multiple inquiries for this story, and she dodged questions from a New Mexico In Depth journalist at a news conference in December.<\/p>\n<p>The state\u2019s 13 DA\u2019s offices don\u2019t submit budget requests together; rather, they ask the Legislature for funding individually. And although each office is seeking a hike this year, LFC figures show that they may not be quite as swamped as they say.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDespite rising reported crime rates in New Mexico, cases referred to the district attorneys have fallen, suggesting a disconnect in crime and policing,\u201d an LFC report looking at the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2018 says. The report also points out that, on average, funding for prosecutors, the courts and public defenders has increased 2 percent per year since 2014.<\/p>\n<h3>Judges, staff, public defenders in need of money too<\/h3>\n<p>Rep. Antonio \u201cMoe\u201d Maestas, D-Albuquerque, said he supports an increase for the DA\u2019s Office in his home city of about 5 percent, and pointed out that prosecutors aren\u2019t the only criminal justice players feeling the squeeze of last year\u2019s cuts.<\/p>\n<p>Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court, the state\u2019s busiest, needs a 5 percent budget increase, too, Maestas said. The rest of the state\u2019s courts need more funding, too.<\/p>\n<p>The state Administrative Office of the Courts has asked for a $14 million increase this year, in part to boost the pay of New Mexico\u2019s judges, which are the lowest paid in the nation, according to a report from the National Center for State Courts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou get the criminal justice system you pay for,\u201d Maestas said. \u201cOf course, public safety is a priority for this session, but the best way to fight crime is to fully fund these institutions \u2014 all of them. That\u2019s what I hope comes out of this session: a step toward that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The state Law Office of the Public Defender has asked for a 13 percent budget hike. Its chief attorney was held in contempt of court last year after saying his office couldn\u2019t take on any more cases in one county.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven if we got that, or even if all aspects of the system were given an equal share of whatever money the Legislature has, it would still be out of balance\u201d because of several years in which the lawyers who represent indigent people have received smaller increases or no new money at all, said Chief Public Defender Bennett Baur.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf they decide just to fund prosecution and law enforcement, it will make it worse,&#8221;\u00a0 he said. &#8220;Indigent defense is part of the cost of prosecution, and not just somebody to look over a plea agreement \u2014 but somebody to actually test the evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Several criminal justice watchers and policymakers interviewed for this story said a deeper issue continues to roil beneath the surface: a decimated mental health care system and sorely lacking substance abuse treatment services that have forced the criminal justice system to take on more of the burden of New Mexico&#8217;s problems.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe whole system is being asked to deal with people in crisis who used to be handled by other aspects of government,\u201d Baur said. \u201cThis really isn\u2019t a criminal justice system anymore; it\u2019s a criminal processing system. If we don\u2019t address those larger issues, then we\u2019ve failed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Two state senators from opposing parties \u2014 Democrat Peter Wirth of Santa Fe and Republican Sander Rue of Albuquerque \u2014 acknowledged the need to fund prosecutors, public defenders and the courts in order to keep the system in balance. And both said the Legislature would be wise to fund reintegration programs for people coming out of prison and to boost programs aimed at addressing people\u2019s substance abuse and mental health problems without incarceration.<\/p>\n<h3>Skepticism greets call to repeal bond amendment<\/h3>\n<p>Wirth and Rue took exception to a controversial proposal by Gov. Martinez to scrap an amendment to the state Constitution voters passed by more than 80 percent last year that allows judges to hold dangerous defendants in jail without bond before trial, but prevents them from locking up pretrial defendants accused of less serious crimes simply because they can\u2019t pay a bail bondsman.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe only way forward is to repeal this dangerous amendment and replace the irresponsible pretrial detention rules,\u201d the governor wrote on Facebook on Oct. 26, borrowing some phrasing from President Donald Trump. \u201cJudges and the legislature must act \u2013 it\u2019s time to get these criminals off our streets and back behind bars where they belong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The amendment, along with changes to how cases are managed in Albuquerque courts, have drawn the ire of the governor and others, who blame the reforms for rising crime rates. Neither Martinez nor anyone else has provided data to support their claims.<\/p>\n<p>With the exception of Rehm, every lawmaker interviewed for this story pointed out the amendment only went into effect July 1 and said the better way to ensure judges are enforcing the constitutional change properly is through the court rulemaking process \u2014 not by passing laws that would, for example, define \u201cdangerousness\u201d in state statute.<\/p>\n<p>An ad-hoc committee appointed by the state Supreme Court met several times last year and was expected to present tweaks to court rules for implementing the amendment before the session began.<\/p>\n<p>Rue said the case management changes and the constitutional amendment were necessary reforms to a criminal justice system that had drifted from its actual purpose.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe solution isn\u2019t to remove those initiatives; the solution is to adequately fund them, as well as looking at more comprehensive reform so the system as a whole functions in a better and more balanced way that actually results in a reduction in crime in addition to principled justice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Rue said the improved revenue forecast presents some hope for lawmakers. But deep, system wide reforms may have to wait until there\u2019s a new occupant of the Governor\u2019s Mansion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is an opportunity to adequately fund the criminal justice system with additional available revenue this year, but I\u2019m concerned about piecemeal legislation that doesn\u2019t actually impact public safety,\u201d Rue said. \u201cMy hope is that the Criminal Justice Reform Subcommittee will reconvene next year to develop more comprehensive proposals for the 2019 session.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Prosecutors, judges and public defenders will compete for dollars during the 2018 session with other needy programs and services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":405938,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3634,142,161,203,107],"class_list":["post-503189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2018-legislative-session","tag-crime","tag-judiciary","tag-law-enforcement","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503189","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=503189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}