Jailing traffic violators is bad idea

YOUR RECENT editorial on “minor’” crimes seems to endorse spending thousands of extra dollars to jail traffic offenders. Your reasoning is that those who drive with a suspended license or without insurance deserve to be jailed as they are a detriment to public safety.

However, the cost these cases would incur going through the judicial process is much more hurtful to our society. Placing these individuals in jail would further stress our already stressed corrections system. Additionally, the cost to taxpayers would be exorbitant. According to the National Institute of Corrections (NIC), the taxpayers pay more than $35,000 per inmate each year. Your editorial cited the huge savings these types of changes have made in other states and then disregarded it. Should we be spending our meager resources and money on traffic violations? Your idea of jailing people who drive with a suspended license would not help our state; it would cost us more money.

According to the NIC, the rate of violent crimes in New Mexico is about 80 percent higher than the average for the rest of the country. Let’s not put our resources toward jailing people guilty of traffic violations and put them toward the crimes that really hurt people.

I am not saying that people who break traffic laws should go unpunished or that changes are not needed in the system; if fines are not working then let’s find another solution. But incarceration for these minor violations is not the correct solution. Instead, we should investigate the barriers to getting a driver’s license or insurance. Let’s let our court systems and police force expend their limited resources on the serious crimes affecting our communities. LAURA MCELROY Las Cruces