State auditor should hit pause on his justice audit
There is little doubt the state’s criminal justice system needs help. All too often violent and repeat offenders, accused drunken drivers and others are turned loose to commit new crimes and make our streets less safe — not because they were found innocent but because the system is dysfunctional.
The reasons are varied — from tight deadlines that lead to case dismissals to pretrial services consistently recommending people for release who should be behind bars until their case is heard.
None of this, mind you, deals with the actual adjudication of cases on the merits — which should be the goal of the system.
So it’s not surprising that State Auditor Wayne Johnson wants to launch an audit of internal policies at seven local criminal justice agencies, as well as examine the way those agencies operate within the broader system.
But as much as that might sound like a good idea to a fed-up public, that kind of audit at this point is both redundant and premature.
First, the Legislative Finance Committee is already taking a deep dive into the criminal justice system in Bernalillo County in a way that would touch many of the same issues Johnson’s audit would examine.
Second, a criminal justice task force authorized by the last Legislature and chaired by retired Supreme Court Justice Ed Chavez has already brought diverse voices to the table in a serious effort to identify problems with the system and ways to make it work better. The goal is to produce legislation.
Finally, the state Supreme Court has already ordered every judicial district in the state to do a thorough review of its operations and report on the findings.
These are serious efforts. Johnson is correct when he says “things are falling through the cracks” and so “we want to take a look from the 40,000-foot-level to see what creates those cracks.”
He points out that the various systems “don’t talk to each other” and an offender may have different case numbers at every step, “which means it’s impossible to track somebody from arrest through disposition.”
Under his plan, each of the seven agencies, including the Albuquerque Police Department, Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office, 2nd Judicial District Attorney’s Office, Metro Court and District Court, would hire CPAs to examine their own policies and procedures. And that’s not cheap. District Court, for example, estimates it would have to spend $50,000 of money it says it doesn’t have.
Before he commits taxpayers to another expensive and perhaps unnecessary study, it would behoove Johnson to sit down with Chief Justice Judith Nakamura, retired Justice Chavez and representatives of the LFC to see if his plan as outlined makes sense or should be adjusted or even scrapped. If his audit proceeds, it should be done in concert with the other players, and should not duplicate others’ efforts.
The auditor has the power to do the audit. But it shouldn’t take a CPA to figure out that New Mexico doesn’t need to pay for just another study for its overfilled shelf; any examination of the justice system should be part of ongoing efforts so it delivers real results going forward.