Year after year, New Mexico legislators introduce a slew of failed, repackaged “tough on crime” policies aimed at public safety. We’re already seeing that trend in the 2024 legislative session, which kicked off on January 16. But rather than making our communities safer, they tear families apart and perpetuate cycles of poverty and generational trauma. In doing so, they can actually increase the chances that people will turn to criminalized behavior, creating the opposite of the intended effect. 

These policies are not only harmful – they lack imagination and ingenuity. If punitive policies that lead to incarceration were the answer, New Mexico would be one of the safest places to live in the United States. It’s time our elected officials take bold action to proactively invest in systems that break the cycle of recidivism. Here’s what you need to know. 

1. Incarceration causes psychological harm that is counterproductive to long-term stability

Jail and prison conditions are purposefully cruel, degrading, and inhumane. The ACLU of New Mexico and ACLU offices around the country have documented horrific cases of abuse in these settings including medical neglect, sexual assault, squalid conditions, retaliatory uses of solitary confinement, and mistreatment based on race, sex, gender identity, and disability.

"These policies are not only harmful – they lack imagination and ingenuity."

This cruelty both creates trauma and exaggerates it for the high percentage of people who enter prison with mental health conditions and histories of abuse, making it all the more difficult for them to get back on their feet and take care of their families after release. Moreover, research shows that rather than having a deterring effect, spending time behind bars can actually increase the likelihood of reoffending as a result of the trauma it creates.

2. Tough on crime policies that send people to prison cause generational trauma

A 2016 study by the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that 10 percent of New Mexico’s child population had a parent who was incarcerated at some point in their lives – a figure with devastating consequences.

In addition to increasing the chances of living in poverty, being unhoused, and going hungry, parental incarceration destabilizes children’s lives and increases the chances that they will have substance use disorders, diagnosable anxiety, and be charged with a felony.

Creating laws that increase incarceration rates will be bad for all New Mexico children, but it will disproportionately harm children of color whose parents are more likely to be arrested and incarcerated.

3, Incarceration creates financial burdens for entire families 

Incarcerated people, who earn about between 10 cents and one dollar an hour in New Mexico, struggle to even buy themselves basic hygiene products, like soap and deodorant, to supplement inadequate provisions from the state. These costs and the additional financial burden imposed by court fines often fall on incarcerated people’s families, who also suffer loss of income while their loved one is away.

"Creating laws that increase incarceration rates will be bad for all New Mexico children..."

Of family members who are responsible for paying conviction-related costs for a loved one, 83% are women. These costs can cause difficulty putting food on the table, paying for childcare, and can even lead to loss of housing altogether.

When a person is released from prison, their struggle is far far over. They face severe obstacles to finding employment and housing as a result of legal restrictions and stigma associated with a criminal record that can make it all but impossible to turn their lives around.

4. Too many people are incarcerated for technical violations

About 30% of the incarcerated population in New Mexico is behind bars for violations of parole or probation conditions. 70% of the time, these are technical violations, such as failing to meet with a probation or parole officer or failing a drug test. Sending people back to prison who may have missed an appointment because they lack transportation or used drugs because they haven’t received proper treatment for their substance use disorder is a colossal waste of money and only sets people and their families up for failure.

"Research shows that rather than having a deterring effect, spending time behind bars can actually increase the likelihood of reoffending..."

Last year, the Senate and House passed a bill to end this practice, but Governor Lujan Grisham wrongly vetoed the bill. The millions of dollars wasted on incarcerating these people should instead be invested in addressing substance use disorders, behavioral health issues, generational trauma, and systemic inequalities – a move that will ultimately help keep families together and improve public safety.

5. Our money is better spent on diversion programs and housing security

Rather than saddling a person who has violated the law with insurmountable debt and a lifelong criminal record, we can address the underlying causes of their mistake. Diversion programs, which are much more cost effective than incarceration, redirect people away from the criminal punishment system, and instead provide them with services like case management, treatment for drugs and alcohol, and trauma-informed counseling.

Despite the evidence that these programs are effective at reducing recidivism and improving public safety, Governor Lujan Grisham issued a September public health order suspending a long-standing program that helps prevent young people from becoming involved with the juvenile justice system.

"Sending people back to prison who may have missed an appointment...is a colossal waste of money and only sets people and their families up for failure."

That is the opposite of what we should be doing. New Mexico’s elected officials should be creative and thoughtful in how they hold people accountable and continue to invest in scalable diversion program models that keep families together. 

Secure housing is another critical avenue for keeping people out of jail and prison, as unhoused people, especially those experiencing mental illness, experience high rates of arrest and incarceration. After a recent end to federal eviction funding provided to states during the Covid-19 pandemic, even more New Mexicans will be at risk for homelessness. The recent creation of a council to address housing insecurity is a great first step, but the state still must do more to ensure that families have a safe roof over their heads. They must also stop passing laws, like the one the governor recently proposed, that will only ensure homeless people will continue to be unfairly and illegally arrested and jailed. 

In March 2023, New Mexico became the 27th state to ban sentencing children to life in prison without parole through the passage of the No Life Sentences for Juveniles Act. Denali Wilson, a staff attorney and expert on juvenile justice for the ACLU of New Mexico, shared that this was a significant step forward in repairing the juvenile justice system and, for the first time, gave substantial hope of a new beginning to people who have been incarcerated for serious offenses they committed while they were children.

However, six months later, Gov. Lujan Grisham signed an executive order that suspended the Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative (JDAI), a program intended to help kids avoid juvenile prison by determining whether they are at risk to themselves or others, and if they were not, allowed them to await their trial at home.

"It’s like showing up to a house fire with a hose filled with gasoline and wondering why the problem isn’t going away."

Wilson explained that programs like JDAI arose from scientific evidence showing that incarcerating kids was not helping community safety. Juvenile justice experts warned that the governor’s decision to suspend JDAI could lead to overzealous policing, senseless incarceration, and exposure to adult punishment and cruel conditions rampant in New Mexican juvenile facilities. So far, it has done exactly that; nearly a third of the 87 young people detained between September and November 2023 would have waited for their trials at home if JDAI had been in place. 

“As the advocate and author Danielle Sered puts it, it’s like showing up to a house fire with a hose filled with gasoline and wondering why the problem isn’t going away,” said Wilson.

Suspending the JDAI guidelines and incarcerating more kids is counterproductive to public safety. Not only does incarcerating children not solve the problems that lead them to commit crimes in the first place (70–80% of incarcerated kids go back into the prison system as adults), but it also increases the likelihood that they will experience mental health disorders, suicidal ideation, and live less healthy lives than their peers overall. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, Source NM reports that the governor wrongly believes detention is the best solution to help young people, particularly those dealing with addiction. 

The idea that we should respond with harsher punishments for juveniles has been gaining traction. This month, Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen called for a need to use restraint and force on children in juvenile detention settings. This was in response to growing unrest and resistance to inhumane conditions in Bernalillo County Juvenile Detention.

“Laying these problems at the feet of children is wrong,” said Wilson. “We should be focused on giving children every chance to succeed and redeem themselves, not creating more opportunities to incarcerate them."

Wilson hopes that with the passage of The No Life Sentences for Juveniles Act, we will take this unique moment of reckoning to learn how to move forward.

“The No Life Sentences for Juveniles Act gives us an opportunity to look at the people who were sentenced to life in prison for serious acts of violence that they took part in as children 20–30 years ago and decide whether that response of punishment and isolation made us safer, made families whole, or deterred future violence,” said Wilson.

"We should be focused on giving children every chance to succeed and redeem themselves, not creating more opportunities to incarcerate them."

On January 30, 2024, advocates who have been previously incarcerated or have incarcerated loved ones will gather at the Roundhouse to tell lawmakers that New Mexicans want treatment over punishment, resources, not prisons, and alternatives to incarceration that keep families whole. We are demanding lawmakers shift away from a fear-based approach in public safety to a proactive, solutions-based vision that inspires hope in New Mexico.   

We must view children’s behavior and (perceived) misbehavior objectively; we must be honest about where these problems stem from, begin to question the institutions that exist that perpetuate them, and be willing to reimagine what community safety looks like.

“Kids are struggling to meet their needs, find love and belonging, and are looking for it in the wrong places. There is no fast and easy way to fix this,” said Wilson. “It will take bravery in the same way it takes analysis. We need real solutions, not snappy sound bites. The current approach is leaving our community hurting."