New Mexico Political Report: Lawmaker confident about criminal justice reform's chances of passage
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Q: It seems like some of the criminal justice advocates this session are right-leaning politically. Do you anticipate some commonality at the discussion table?
Yes, many of these proposals are consistent with Right on Crime, out of Austin [Texas]. We’re going to have lobbyists from Justice Action Network out of South Carolina come to New Mexico, as well as the Rio Grande Foundation.
Q: Is there any commonality between these reform efforts and previous attempts at increasing penalties?
The data proves that increasing penalties does nothing to deter crime. Nothing to affect the crime rate.
If we put an emphasis on reducing recidivism as opposed to trying to curb behavior with stiffer penalties then we’ll be much more successful in lowering the crime rate and having less crime victims. The number one deterrent for crime is the likelihood of getting caught and the speed of prosecution after arrest.
We want to create a system that folks get indicted within 60 days upon their arrest, and they get convicted within six to nine months of their arrest—as opposed to getting indicted a year later and then getting prosecuted a year after that.