Tough-on-crime bills not helping
Politics getting in the way of sorely needed real solutions to NM’s crime wave
New Mexico is a fantastic place to live. We have deep culture, strong families, breathtaking landscapes and near-perfect weather. That said, the crime problem here is very real. New Mexico now has the worst property crime rate in the country. When it comes to violent crime, we’re currently number two, trailing only behind Alaska.
New Mexicans want safe and strong communities for their families. Our families know that one of state government’s greatest responsibilities to its people, and also one of its biggest failings, is public safety. The question is what are we going to do about it? Gov. Susana Martinez’s answer is to simply politicize the issue to distract the public’s attention from the fact that after eight years under her leadership, we’re still one of the few states in the country that never recovered from the Great Recession. Session after session, especially during election years, she brings the same tired, recycled, tough-on-crime agenda to the table that does not make our communities safer.
Don’t think about our lack of high-quality jobs in New Mexico. Let’s reinstate the death penalty instead. Don’t think about improving our troubled schools. Let’s create more mandatory sentences. Don’t think about our lack of behavioral health services. Let’s make even longer prison terms.
The governor’s approach is simply not serving our families well. A 2016 report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that New Mexico ranked as one of the highest states in the country in the number of kids with incarcerated parents. We can’t incarcerate our way out of our problem with crime. Even the former governor of our deeply conservative neighbor has become a champion of shutting down prisons in Texas. Mass incarceration has failed us, and everyone except our governor and her inner circle seems to know it.
We all want safer communities, but we have to get real about this discussion. The New Mexico SAFE coalition was designed to bring a reality-based approach to the debate around crime and public safety. During the 2017 session, we gave letter grades to high-profile safety-related bills based on whether there was any evidence they would actually reduce crime in our communities and, if so, whether they would achieve this in a cost-effective manner.
Our analysis also looks at whether or not a bill is being proposed merely to score political points. Far too often, we see crime bills introduced merely because they have an emotional impact in an election year. The most egregious example of that was when Gov. Martinez and her legislative allies introduced a bill to reinstate the death penalty bill during a special session just one month before the general election in 2016. The bill had no possibility of passing. But it did give political operatives an opportunity to transform the vote into hit pieces aimed at one of the governor’s main political opponents.
During 2017, New Mexico SAFE graded 25 different bills. There were many poorly drafted bills, but we also gave out a considerable number of “A” s. Several great bills made it all the way through the process, with bipartisan support, and onto the governor’s desk. She vetoed each of them.
It’s another election year and we’re seeing a similar pattern. A slew of crime bills are popping up during this session that will be both expensive and ineffective at making communities safer. These bills can seem like quick fixes compared to addressing the economy, education and providing services. But many of these bills are simply an easy way for politicians to score points. Until we have legislators that are willing to look beyond the next election cycle, real solutions to crime will be difficult to come by.
Although it’s probably too late for Gov. Martinez to see the light, other leaders, especially those in the Legislature, must step forward, with courage and vision, to make New Mexico the safe, thriving place we all know it can be.