Supporters: You can't blame bail reform for our crime crisis - KOAT Albuquerque

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —

Advocates of recent court reforms are firing back after several critics have blamed those reforms for New Mexico's spike in crime.

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The FBI this week released new data designating New Mexico as No. 1 nationwide for property crimes and No. 2 for violent crimes.

Albuquerque's mayor and New Mexico district attorneys have repeatedly said a big reason for this spike is recent court reforms. But on Friday, the Rio Grande Foundation and Drug Policy Alliance pointed out that the FBI's data is from 2016, before many of those reforms went into effect this July.

"You can't blame it on this reform because quite honestly, this reform didn't exist in 2016," said Paul Gessing of the Rio Grande Foundation.

Those reforms, which were approved by 87 percent of New Mexicans via a constitutional amendment, allow courts to use a new risk-based assessment to determine which suspects are safe to be released before trial. If deemed too dangerous, then judges can deny bail. The goal is to make sure people aren't just sitting in jail because they can't afford bail.

On Thursday, the state's district attorneys all sent a letter to the New Mexico Supreme Court requesting that it make changes to the constitutional amendment, claiming too many dangerous people are getting let out.

The Laura and John Arnold Foundation created the new assessment. "I think it's far too early to declare success or declare failure," said Matt Alsdorf, the foundation's vice president of criminal justice.

He reminded judges that the tool "does not bind the judges’ decisions at all. What it does is provide them with objective, consistent information about each defendant," he said.

Going forward, these supporters say the more productive conversation everyone should be having is, "Are there process challenges that need to be addressed? Do we have the right types of pretrial supervision to ensure that people who are released are appropriately monitored?" asked Alsdorf.

Alsdorf says all those different factors and more can affect if these reforms work.

Other courts around the country are implementing these same reforms. Supporters Friday mentioned New Jersey. They said the state implemented these changes in January and are already seeing a decrease in crime.

District attorneys say another court reform is also fueling the crime crisis. Bernalillo County District Court is the only district in our state that has much shorter timelines to process criminal cases. Defendants are released if those deadlines aren't met. That went into effect in February 2015.

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