Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham recently shared her plans to tackle crime and improve public safety in New Mexico during a town hall in Gallup.
After her previous efforts to push tough-on-crime laws failed earlier this year, she’s now trying a new approach for 2025. Instead of introducing multiple separate bills, she plans to bundle all the proposed reforms into one big bill.
At the town hall, the governor explained that this new plan will include a variety of criminal justice reforms and a focus on addressing mental health and drug addiction.
She mentioned that both chambers of the legislature have agreed to this new approach, which will involve a lot of debate on different reforms all packaged into one bill. She also emphasized the need for more investment in mental health services.
Throughout the year, the governor has hosted town halls in various communities, listening to people talk about crime in their areas and suggesting solutions. In Gallup, she heard from people including educators, social workers, teens, and advocates, who shared their thoughts on how to improve public safety.
The governor plans to push for similar proposals that failed in a special session this summer. These include making it easier for police to commit people with mental health issues to treatment, making it harder for certain people to be released from jail, banning loitering on certain medians, and increasing penalties for people with felony records caught with guns.
During the session earlier this year, the governor’s bills didn’t pass because Democratic leaders blocked them, and no Democrats agreed to sponsor the bills. This led to a disagreement, with the governor expressing frustration that the legislature didn’t act fast enough to address the urgent public safety crisis.
Senator George Muñoz, a Democrat from Gallup, pointed out that while laws can be toughened, the issue also depends on how well the police, judges, and district attorneys enforce and follow through with them.
He also noted that reforms related to mental illness and criminal competency would be some of the most challenging.
Despite these challenges, the governor remains determined to push for the reforms, citing successful examples from other states. She plans to introduce the new bill when the legislative session begins in January.