NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – It’s a problem plaguing New Mexico, leading to frustrations for prosecutors and lawmakers, and heartbreak for families and the community. Now, lawmakers are making another run at the issue of how to make criminal offenders get the treatment they need.
Senator Moe Maestas (D-Albuquerque) is bringing back a proposal that didn’t make it across the finish line in the last legislative session. He says it’s time to change outdated laws surrounding civil commitment.
It’s an issue that hits home for Maestas. “I had a niece who recently committed suicide because we could not force her into drug treatment,” said Sen. Maestas.
Sen. Maestas wonders if she would be alive today if the law had made it easier for a court to order her into treatment.
A recent Larry Barker investigation revealed that time and time again, people are arrested for crimes, but are later released after being found incompetent to stand trial, with no help in dealing with their underlying mental health and substance abuse problems. It’s a revolving door that Sen. Maestas hopes to stop. “This will facilitate loved ones, securing treatment options for their immediate family members.”
Right now in New Mexico, a family member, a medical practitioner, or a law enforcement officer can petition the court for civil commitment. But Sen. Maestas said the guidelines for judges to make that decision rely too much on predicting how someone will behave in the future.
Sen. Maestas’s bill, which didn’t make it through the last legislative session, would focus instead on behavior in the recent past to define a person’s risk of harm to self or others.
“If in fact they’re suicidal, if in fact they’re unable to care for themselves, this will allow the judge to better assess whether that person should be committed into drug treatment,” said Sen. Maestas.
But Kristin Love, Senior Civil Liberties Attorney with the ACLU of New Mexico, said civil commitment doesn’t work. “Any kind of policy that seeks to commit people against their will into civil commitment invariably violates people’s constitutional rights.”
Sen. Maestas said there are plenty of legal safeguards already in place to prevent people from being unjustly committed.
But the ACLU said the real problem is a lack of housing. “When somebody is arrested or put into a civil commitment setting, they don’t leave with additional resources that make housing more affordable,” said Love.
As one of the governor’s priorities, Sen. Maestas said he’s optimistic the bill will be included should there be a special session in the next month.
The Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office told KRQE News 13, “In general, DA Bregman supports getting people treatment who need it.”
