NM lawmakers need to get answers about juvenile arrest policy

You might think if police officers who had just heard gunfire pulled you over in the early morning hours and found two handguns, ammunition, cannabis and a bundle of cash in your vehicle, you would be arrested and booked.

And you almost assuredly would be right. Unless you are a juvenile roaming the streets of Albuquerque after midnight.

In that case, depending on your record, it’s just as likely the officers who found your stash of drugs, weapons and money would be told to track down your parents and release you into their custody. And chances are pretty good the public — including people who heard gunshots ringing out in their neighborhood — will never know anything about your case.

Welcome to the new and increasingly opaque world of juvenile justice in New Mexico, where detention of juveniles is frowned on by the state’s Children, Youth and Families Department — and where battery has ranked as the number one juvenile offense in the past two years, knocking drugrelated offenses out of the top spot. And while overall juvenile crime has declined along with the juvenile population, the incidence of violent crime hasn’t.

“Kids have always been very resourceful about getting guns,” said Diana Garcia, who oversees Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office prosecutions in Childrens Court. “Our caseload is predominately felonies at this point ... we’re seeing guns all over the place.”

Since October, police and sheriff’s officers have been required by CYFD to get juvenile probation officers to sign off in advance if they want to arrest and book a juvenile into the county’s Youth Services Center.

That’s what happened in the guns, drugs and cash scenario described above — which played out near Louisiana and Montgomery on Aug. 15.

An internal APD crime alert obtained by the Journal said the probation officer — a CYFD employee — turned thumbs down on booking the suspects and that “without Juvenile Probation’s blessing to make an arrest, the juveniles were released to their parents.”

Booking a juvenile is typically saved for the most dangerous offenders, according to CYFD, which says the state law favors rehabilitation and detention alternatives.

Detaining juveniles in a secure facility to stress the importance of a criminal action is akin to the “old scared-straight mentality, that if you show them the inside of a detention center that they’re never going to do it again,” said Nick Costales, deputy director of CYFD’s juvenile justice field services.

His boss, CYFD Cabinet Secretary Brian Blalock, told legislators last year that one of CYFD’s goals is to prevent “juveniles from entering the juvenile justice system.” And Steve Johnson, executive director of New Day Youth & Family Services, said “the deeper you get into the juvenile justice system, the more likely you are to come back.”

What do the officers on the street think?

“We make a good arrest, we get two kids with drugs and guns off the street, for a second, then we’re told we can’t incarcerate them so we’re just going to let them go,” said Shaun Willoughby, president of the Albuquerque police union.

And what happened after the Aug. 15 incident? Who knows? APD released an incident report but redacted the names of the juveniles, saying the names were withheld because the individuals were accused but not charged with a crime, an exception allowed under the public records law.

The press and public have access to proceedings in serious criminal cases in Childrens’ Court. But prosecutors say that since possession of a handgun and possession of narcotics with intent to distribute are misdemeanors in the juvenile context, it’s not likely formal charges would be filed by CYFD, which screens the cases. And even if charges are filed, the public doesn’t know the names so it can’t follow the process.

So how accurate and effective is the assessment tool probation officers use to make these decisions over the phone? Is the strategy of keeping juvenile offenders out of the detention center making inroads on juvenile crime, or adding to it? Should a gun-wielding 17-year-old with drug dealer amounts of narcotics and cash face stiffer consequences? Should patrol officers have to track down parents once CYFD nixes detention?

CYFD officials will be in front of legislative committees in the near future. Our elected representatives need answers.