Governor hears lots of ideas at second town hall on public safety

Sally Sanchez’s son Antonio Jaramillo was murdered in 2020.

“I, Governor, am the one with a life sentence. I will never get to hear my son’s voice again,” Sanchez told Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham at a town hall Monday night on the Central New Mexico Community College.

Sanchez cofounded the New Mexico Crusaders for Justice, an advocacy group that includes families of people who have been murdered. She was one of several members who asked the governor to stop repeat violent offenders from being let out of jail or prison.

“Too many cases are not being prosecuted,” responded Lujan Grisham, who seemed in agreement with the group’s message. She said that the state can improve the justice system to make sure “dangerous people who are convicted of crimes stay in jail until they’re held accountable” and keep investing in prevention at the same time.

Lujan Grisham’s message at her second town hall on public safety was that the state needs a balance between adequate behavioral health services and more jail time for people who commit multiple violent crimes.

The first town hall in Las Cruces last week lasted five hours and stretched late into the night, ending after 10 p.m., according to reporting from Source New Mexico. More than 500 people attended, according to a news release. The final town hall will be in Española on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at the Northern New Mexico College Event Center located at 921 N. Paseo De Oñate.

Lujan Grisham brought together a panel of officials, including Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller, APS Chief Harold Medina and Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen, for Monday’s event. More than 250 attended, and it was continuing at nearly four hours long by the time the Journal had gone to press.

The town halls allow Lujan Grisham “to hear firsthand from residents about our state’s crime challenges an discuss ways we can work together to make our communities safer,” she said in a statement.

Albuquerque attendees asked the governor to take a range of actions: Pass legislation that addresses human trafficking and domestic violence, bring back pretrial detention, create a renters’ bill of rights, get state police to enforce tinted window laws, revisit sentencing for violent crimes, don’t build bigger prisons, get people off the streets, more beds for juvenile offenders, comprehensive community care, help homeless kids, transform the Metropolitan Detention Center into a facility for homeless people, create a rent cap and listen to Black women.

Five young protesters interrupted the governor’s introduction, each standing up at various points in her speech to protest U.S. involvement in the war in Israel and Palestine. Lujan Grisham allowed them some time to yell before having each escorted out.

William Davis, the namesake of a defunct law, the Bill Davis Kids, Car and Crime Law, was the victim of a shooting in Albuquerque 25 years ago that nearly took his life. He would like the governor to revisit the bill, which was overthrown in the New Mexico Supreme Court after an ACLU lawsuit over 20 years ago.

Lujan Grisham proposed public safety and crime related bills for the special legislative session she called earlier this month. The governor’s agenda included measures to curb panhandling and reduce the number of criminal offenses by people who have been deemed incompetent to stand trial.

But Democratic leadership, the stronghold of the Roundhouse, declined to consider the public safety issues on her agenda. Instead, the Legislature gaveled in for a one-day session and passed one funding bill, which authorizes $100 million for wildfire relief efforts and $3 million to expand a judicial mental health program.

Lujan Grisham has yet to sign the funding bill. She has 20 days from when it passed the Legislature on July 18, so she must sign it by Aug. 7.

Republican Senate leader Greg Baca attended the town hall and thanked Lujan Grisham for her nonpartisan approach. Baca said the Republicans would back the bills again in the 2025 regular session.