Panel would tackle county jail crowding

SANTA FE — Bernalillo County officials grappling with the long-standing problem of jail crowding have gotten a bill to Gov. Susana Martinez’s desk aimed at getting a broad group to the planning table.

The legislation, passed in the 60-day session that ended March 16, would create the Bernalillo County Criminal Justice Review Commission.

It would meet over the course of two years and make written recommendations for revising state and local laws to “improve the delivery of criminal justice” in Bernalillo County.

Gov. Susana Martinez has until April 5 to sign or veto it. Enrique Knell, a spokesman for the governor, said she has not reviewed the bill yet.

Crowding at the Metropolitan Detention Center — which was designed for just over 2,200 inmates and now has about 2,500 — has the county looking at various ways to curb the number of prisoners in the long term.

The county promised a federal judge last week that it will significantly reduce the jail population within a month, after a complaint about conditions for female prisoners that was the latest development in a civil rights lawsuit first filed 18 years ago.

The commission would include the chief judges of the 2nd Judicial District and Metropolitan Courts, the district attorney, the sheriff, the County Commission chair, the Albuquerque police chief, the public defender, a probation and parole official, the head of the New Mexico Association of Counties, and the director of the Administrative Office of the Courts, who would chair the panel.

“It’s clear that however we address the jail population has to include input from all these different entities that are part of the system,” said County Commission Chairwoman Maggie Hart Stebbins.

She’d like to see the commission come up with recommendations for sentencing alternatives for offenders who are mentally ill or substance abusers or homeless.

“We want to make sure if judges want to use other options, they’re available,” Hart Stebbins said.

Deputy County Manager Tom Swisstack said the commission will discuss how to get people who are “high-need — not high-risk — connected to services, while at the same time maintaining a safe jail within its capacity.”

There have been previous efforts, including a 2009 study by the National Center for State Courts on case flow management in Bernalillo County; a task force pursuant to a 2011 legislative memorial that looked at efficiency and reducing the burden on county detention facilities; and a criminal justice coordinating council in Albuquerque that was discussing the same issues 15 years ago.

But supporters of House Bill 608, sponsored by House Majority Leader Rick Miera, D-Albuquerque, say having the commission in law gives it extra weight and a better chance its work will result in new policy.
— This article appeared on page C01 of the Albuquerque Journal