Advocates want resources over punitive crime policies

SANTA FE — Before he was 15, Adam Griego witnessed two suicide attempts by his mother and dealt with an alcoholic father. That's part of the reason he's now involved in an advocacy coalition pushing for preventive crime measures, ensuring people have access to behavioral health resources and affordable housing.

"I know that I'm not alone with the traumas I've experienced in life, and I speculate that many New Mexicans have experienced much of the same," Griego told a room of friends, advocates and media at the Roundhouse on Thursday.

A slew of advocacy organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, Center for Civic Policy, Equality New Mexico, New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness and the Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico, gathered to promote public safety solutions that don't enact aggressive criminal penalties.

Nearly all of the coalition's members — and all of the above organizations present at Thursday's news conference — were part of a call over the summer to cancel the special session Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham convened to address public safety and crime.

Daniel Williams with ACLU-NM said on Thursday the coalition has had conversations with the Governor's Office and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle since the five-hour-long special session, finding common ground and, still, disagreements.

"We are really proud of the work that our legislators did to resist the governor's harmful agenda in July, and I think that brought a lot of momentum to this conversation that's urgently needed about real solutions," Williams said.

He declined to share specific bills the coalition is supporting in the ongoing 60-day session. He said advocates are "looking closely" at legislation filed that would lengthen criminal sentences, which he said would "fuel mass incarceration."

Another bill the coalition is analyzing is House Bill 4, a criminal competency bill introduced by Rep. Christine Chandler, D-Los Alamos. Involuntary commitment is an initiative groups like ACLU-NM have been wary of in the past. Williams said Chandler's bill is moving in the right direction but declined to share specific concerns on it.

The coalition hasn't seen the governor's competency

proposal yet, he said.

Lujan Grisham recently told the Albuquerque Journal that competency and commitment issues are at the top of her priority list, though it can be difficult to get an "earnest start" in committees when there are dozens of advocacy organizations fighting her on it.

"The ACLU's job is to say no to all of it, and they will," she said during the interview. "And they're good at their job."

Griego, who is a member of ACLU-NM's Justice Advisory Accountability Board, said at the Thursday news conference that people closest to the problems are the ones with the best solutions — but they are often left out of conversations.

As someone formerly incarcerated, he highlighted vulnerable populations — formerly incarcerated people, like himself, or people experiencing homelessness. He said New Mexico must invest in education, mental health and affordable housing for these communities.

There will be a rise in homelessness this year, said Monet Silva, executive director of the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness. The organization's 2024 Point in Time Account found that more than 4,600 people around New Mexico experienced homelessness on a single night in January, a majority of them in Albuquerque, though the number is likely much higher than that.

"To truly address homelessness, we must tackle its root causes. This means addressing the chronic lack of affordable housing, breaking generational cycles of poverty and developing a robust behavioral and mental health system," Silva said.

Criminalization, punitive measures and "reactive strategies" are ineffective and often make issues worse, she said.

"While it is encouraging to see increased focus on homelessness and housing and behavioral health in New Mexico, we must reject harmful and outdated policies and narratives that have failed to produce meaningful change," Silva said.

She also said it's crucial to stop criminalizing homelessness. Lujan Grisham on Tuesday segued from homelessness to crime in her State of the State Address.

"Addressing homelessness strengthens our communities, and it matters to every single one of us in this state — which takes us to, everyone in this room knows that crime is out of control in New Mexico," Lujan Grisham said.

Journal Capitol Bureau Chief Dan Boyd contributed to this report.