SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) – Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham is doubling down on her call for a special session next week focusing on public safety and crime, amid calls from dozens of groups to call it off .
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The governor is focusing on five bills for the special session including changes to the court system, harsher penalties for felons with guns, and changes to where panhandlers can legally be.
“My hope certainly is that legislators are going to do right by New Mexico. Special sessions are always uniquely challenging. That’s why they’re called ‘special sessions,'” Lujan Grisham said, “I don’t believe there is a legislator who will not say, ‘we have a public safety crisis in this state,’ and the intersection between that and our growing risk, homeless, and transient populations are significantly challenging.”
To tackle these rising concerns, the governor is proposing five bills. The first creates mandatory data sharing across state agencies…”so we know what cases are dismissed, so we know what arrests are occurring, so that I know what things are being prosecuted. I can’t fix something if I don’t know what’s happening,” Lujan Grisham said.
The governor also wants to increase penalties for felons in possession of firearms, and make it illegal for panhandlers to stand on narrow medians in busy intersections in the name of pedestrian safety.
Additionally, the governor is trying to stop the revolving door in the court system of people incompetent to stand trial. “Change the competency law so that you can stand trial. Change the commitment law when you’re a danger to yourself and others so that we can require that you get treatment. That simple,” Lujan Grisham said.
She highlighted the issue with state statistics from 2017: “Since 2017, more than 16,000 cases have been dismissed statewide from our courts because of competency. And in a nutshell it means this: when a defendant has a drug addiction and/or a mental health issue, they can’t stand for trial under our current laws, so the case is dismissed.
“It isn’t dismissed into a treatment environment because that person says no. They’re dismissed back onto the streets. 5,000 of these cases and change are dangerous felonies,” Lujan Grisham said, “I’m talking about assault with a deadly weapon, I’m talking about rape, I’m talking about drug trafficking, I’m talking about human trafficking. And many of these dangerous felonies and the other cases are cycling in and out up to 40 times in a year in the same court system.”
She says the bills they’re presenting this session will give the judicial system the tools to interrupt that cycle.
The governor acknowledges the pushback she’s gotten for this special session from advocacy groups who say there’s not enough time and consensus in the legislature to tackle these complex issues: “Certainly I understand their positions. But it certainly isn’t enough for me to look away at this crisis. I won’t do it. And what about everybody else who says, ‘Please, get something done to keep my family safe?'”
She also acknowledges similar pushback from lawmakers; but said they’ve had enough time to go over these bills. “It is true that they have been very clear that they don’t want this. I can’t understand it, I find it to be unconscionable. I want New Mexicans to be safer, and I can’t imagine that I would have to talk anybody into that, but I do.”
The governor Friday says legislators need to do their jobs: legislators should show up and they should do their jobs. And if they’re confused, they can call me. But they’re not talking about the bills. They’re really strategizing about how not to complete the session. If New Mexicans think that’s a problem, I certainly do, call them up, and remember that at the ballot box.”
When asked why legislators would be trying to stall the session, Lujan Grisham volunteered her take on the situation: “I think there’s this sort of malaise that this is how it is, there’s nothing we can really do, and if there is something we can do we can wait until the 60-day session. I’m not waiting for one more person to be chased, assaulted; To have their car taken or ransacked; To have someone break into their home, or a business lost, closes their doors because they can’t do it.”
“Enough is enough. The legislators have real opportunity here, and I’ve given them four months to adjust bills they saw in large part for 30 days, that heard about for a year before that, and meanwhile more New Mexicans are having public safety risk so, I’m all in,” Lujan Grisham said.
The special session is only slated for two days, but the governor says she’s not opposed to extending it to get these bills across the finish line.
“I don’t know what the outcome will be, but I’ll tell you this: I will never stop fighting to keep New Mexicans safe. Never,” Lujan Grisham said.
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