NM Supreme Court chief justice asks lawmakers to boost funding for expanded public safety efforts

SANTA FE — New Mexico’s judicial branch is stepping up its efforts to reduce repeat criminal offenders but needs adequate funding to prop up such programs, the state’s chief Supreme Court justice told lawmakers Thursday.

With a range of proposals dealing with crime and public safety expected to be filed at the Roundhouse during the 60-day session that started this week, Supreme Court Chief Justice David Thomson said the new initiatives should not be unfunded mandates.

“The judiciary is committed to doing the hard work to support the policy initiatives of the Legislature and the executive on behavioral health,” Thomson said during his State of the Judiciary Address. “We will do our part.”

“My request to you is that we are not asked to do more to the detriment of our core judicial function,” he added.

Specifically, Thomson asked lawmakers to make the $3 million in funding approved during a special session last year recurring to ramp up court-ordered assisted outpatient treatment programs for individuals with mental illness in three judicial districts.

“We need that extended if this is a program that is of value to you so we can be consistent in its application,” he said.

A treatment program in the Santa Fe-based 1st Judicial District was recently launched using the Legislature’s initial start-up funding, though Thomson said he did not yet have information about the number of participants.

“We literally (just) turned on the switch,” he told lawmakers, while also saying that such programs alone will not solve the state’s vexing problem of high violent crime rates.

Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, told judicial officials during a Thursday hearing he’s committed to securing recurring funding for the assisted outpatient program, which connects defendants with counseling, medication and other services for up to one year.

He also said it’s important for such court programs to be in place and fully staffed as legislators consider changes to the state’s approach to assisting individuals found not to be competent, both in criminal and civil cases.

“This law has been on our books since 2016 and we just weren’t using it,” Wirth said, referring to the state’s assisted outpatient treatment programs.

Rep. Christine Chandler, D-Los Alamos, has already filed legislation changing the process for evaluating whether criminal defendants are competent to stand trial.

That bill, House Bill 4, would specifically require that competency evaluators determine whether defendants are dangerous to themselves or others. After a competency hearing, and if a defendant is found not to be competent, a judge would then decide whether the defendant poses a threat.

Based on that determination, a defendant would either be ordered to attend an assisted outpatient treatment program or be sent to the state Behavioral Health Institute in Las Vegas, New Mexico.

As for other judicial branch initiatives, Thomson said there have been 2,750 holds of defendants since adoption of a May 2024 rule that calls for automatic jail holds when defendants on release pending trial are arrested for a new felony or certain misdemeanor offense.

The judiciary is seeking an additional $3.5 million to fund costs associated with 24-hour GPS monitoring of defendants released pending trial via ankle monitors.

That funding would also help the judicial branch to expand the initiative into all parts of New Mexico, Thomson said.

He also said the number of jury trials in New Mexico increased by 32% from the 2022 budget year to 2023, with nearly 47,000 New Mexicans called for jury duty. That uptick came after jury trials were scaled back during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although New Mexico judges received salary increases under a bill approved last year, Thomson also asked lawmakers to provide pay raises for judicial branch employees who make less than $100,000 per year.

He said some staffers currently make less than the living wage, which was calculated last year by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to be $20.10 per hour in New Mexico.

No Senate Republicans were seen in the House chamber during the State of the Judiciary Address.

They were attending a luncheon with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham sponsored by New Mexico Amigos, a nonprofit group that promotes state businesses and industries, a caucus spokesperson said later Thursday.