State must reduce the number of people behind bars
New Mexicans are held in local jails on minor cases because they cannot afford to pay court fees or money bonds, and because some judges have a proclivity for sending minor offenders to jail.
Taxpayers are the ones who actually foot the bill for most of the fees and the high price of keeping people in jail. Our jails cannot ensure safe conditions even in the best of times, and the COVID-19 pandemic has compounded the human tragedy.
Across the state, New Mexico courts impose fines and fees that many are simply unable to pay. To make things worse, after imposing these unpayable fees, our courts spend an inordinate amount of resources attempting to collect the fees. The Brennan Center for Justice reports Bernalillo County spent $2.1 million in 2016 to collect $1.9 million, a loss of $300,000. Socorro County, with one of New Mexico’s highest poverty rates, imposed $207,000 in fines and fees, then spent $96,000 to collect $119,000, resulting in a net gain of only $24,000.
Much of the remaining debt was “paid” by putting the people who owed the money in jail, with each day of incarceration resulting in writing off a portion of the debt. This form of “payment” actually costs taxpayers. These monetary figures do not even consider the human costs of allowing people to “pay” using jail, a modern-day debtors prison, that has locked up thousands of poor New Mexicans.
Beyond fines and fees, many New Mexicans go to jail because they cannot afford bond or are given jail time for petty crimes. The Northern New Mexico Independent recently reported a Chimayó man, Juan, was jailed in the Rio Arriba County jail by Española Municipal Court Judge Stephen Salazar. The judge ordered the man pay a $500 bond to be released. Juan was unemployed. Neither he nor his family had that kind of money.
Salazar did not appoint an attorney to help Juan get this amount lowered, even though the judge was previously disciplined by the New Mexico Supreme Court for communicating with a defendant without his lawyer. Salazar, and many other judges, regularly send people to jail without that person having a lawyer to help.
Without a lawyer’s help, Juan went to jail Oct. 2 and died the next day. His death is not the only one that has occurred in the Rio Arriba County jail. The Rio Grande Sun reported in December that three detainees died in the jail. Unsurprisingly, one person was serving a 21-day sentence for shoplifting imposed by Salazar.
During a pandemic, systematic jailing for minor issues can quickly turn into something even worse: needless exposure to a deadly virus. The coronavirus outbreaks in our jails have been disastrous. Several New Mexicans have died after being exposed in jail. New Mexico’s largest jail, the Metropolitan Detention Center in Bernalillo County, is the most recent county jail to suffer a terrible outbreak, with hundreds testing positive in only a matter of days. Outbreaks are fueled by the basic structure of jails: many people held in close quarters, relying on guards for all their basic needs. Even during the best of times, jails struggle to keep detainees safe.
New Mexico can make its jails and communities safer by reducing the number of people incarcerated. The place to start is ending fines and fees, monetary bonds and jail sentences for minor crimes because of the perverse incentives these create. There is no time to waste as COVID-19 rampages through New Mexico and finds breeding grounds in our jails.
Across the state, New Mexico courts impose fines and fees that many are simply unable to pay.