{"id":651225,"date":"2018-12-03T08:00:27","date_gmt":"2018-12-03T15:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=651225"},"modified":"2018-11-30T16:36:00","modified_gmt":"2018-11-30T23:36:00","slug":"criminal-justice-reform-expected-to-be-a-premier-topic-for-lawmakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/12\/criminal-justice-reform-expected-to-be-a-premier-topic-for-lawmakers\/","title":{"rendered":"Criminal justice reform expected to be a &#8216;premier topic&#8217; for lawmakers"},"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=\"https:\/\/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>If an interim legislative committee meeting on Thursday is any indication, 2019 could be a year when New Mexico lawmakers pass a slate of criminal justice reform efforts that were previously blocked by Gov. Susana Martinez.<\/p>\n<p>The Courts, Corrections and Justice interim committee met to hear recommendations from a subcommittee tasked with reviewing and crafting possible legislation, some of which addresses probation and parole standards and changing punishments for non-violent crimes.<\/p>\n<p>Most of the bills the interim committee discussed previously passed the Legislature with bipartisan support before they were vetoed by Martinez.<\/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:\/\/nmpoliticalreport.com\/2018\/11\/30\/criminal-justice-reform-expected-to-be-a-premier-topic-for-lawmakers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New Mexico Political Report<\/a>,\u00a0a nonprofit news organization\u00a0focused on promoting a greater public understanding of politics and policy in New Mexico.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>A bill to \u201cban the box,\u201d or prohibit private employers from asking about criminal convictions on employment applications, for example, was co-sponsored by a Republican and Democrat in 2017 and made it to Martinez\u2019s desk with significant Republican support. Still, Martinez vetoed it, saying it limited employers\u2019 ability to properly vet potential employees.<\/p>\n<p>During Thursday\u2019s meeting, Republican state Sen. Sander Rue, who co-chairs the subcommittee, said employers would still be able to ask about criminal convictions during employment interviews. It would, the Albuquerque senator said, help convicted felons get past the application stage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToo often that\u2019s as far as that goes,\u201d Rue said.<\/p>\n<p>Martinez, a former prosecutor, made increasing criminal penalties one of her priorities.<\/p>\n<p>Even though the interim committee discussed legislation last week, it is still hard to say which bills will gain traction during the legislative session next year. The pre-filing period for bills doesn\u2019t start until next month. An endorsement by the interim committee doesn\u2019t guarantee general support.<\/p>\n<p>But interim committee member and resident criminal justice reform supporter Rep. Antonio \u201cMoe\u201d Maestas, D-Albuquerque, told\u00a0<i>NM Political Report\u00a0<\/i>he thinks besides bolstering the state\u2019s education system, criminal justice reform will be a \u201cpremier topic\u201d next year and that many of the proposals will become law by next July.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cBoth the House and the Senate have educated themselves tremendously the past two or three years learning about criminal justice reform measures throughout the nation that are working to reduce recidivism and reduce crime rates,\u201d Maestas said.<\/p>\n<p>As with most legislative meetings, committee members asked questions and raised concerns.<\/p>\n<p>State Rep. Eliseo Alcon, D-Milan, questioned endorsing potential bills he had not read yet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re going to ask me now to say \u2018yes\u2019 to something I don\u2019t know anything about,\u201d Alcon said.<\/p>\n<p>Maestas told\u00a0<i>NM Political Report<\/i>\u00a0that regardless of whether Alcon or other members knew exactly what was in each proposal, the general issues have been discussed in the Legislature numerous times.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe may not have read the bill for a couple of years,\u201d Maestas said of Alcon. \u201cBut all of us on that committee are familiar with these bills. The question is, how do we educate the new House members so that they\u2019re comfortable voting on it?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most of the bills an interim committee discussed Thursday previously passed the Legislature with bipartisan support before they were vetoed by outgoing Gov. Susana Martinez.<\/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":[3671,142,107],"class_list":["post-651225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2019-legislative-session","tag-crime","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651225","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=651225"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":651227,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651225\/revisions\/651227"}],"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=651225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}