Reps. Christine Chandler (left) and Marianna Anaya present their criminal competency bill to the House Consumer & Public Affairs Committee Jan. 28, 2025. (Photo by Leah Romero / Source NM)
After three hours of debate, the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday night voted 7-1 in favor of House Bill 8, a package of six bills intended to reduce crime.
The House of Representatives already passed the omnibus legislation, leaving the package one Senate vote away from reaching Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s desk.
Committee members focused on House Bill 4, which would give prosecutors more options to involuntarily commit people into a locked psychiatric facility if they are deemed dangerous and unable to stand trial.
Supporters at Wednesday night’s committee included the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, the Albuquerque Police Department, the Department of Public Safety, the New Mexico Nurses Association, the New Mexico Nurse Practitioner Council and Disability Rights New Mexico.
Jim Jackson, a former executive director of Disability Rights New Mexico, told the committee the organization supports “most” of the bill’s competency-related provisions, particularly the one establishing community-based competency restoration programs.
“This will spare people the trauma of being sent to the forensic unit at the state hospital in Las Vegas, and provide this kind of service on the local level,” Jackson said. “We don’t have that capacity yet, but if we can develop that, I think it will be really useful.”
Criticism of HB 4 remains, however, in part because there is no statewide competency restoration program in New Mexico.
For instance, nearly all of the mental health professionals who evaluate people for their abilities to stand trial oppose HB4, according to Dr. Bronwyn Neeser, a forensic psychologist and former competency evaluator contract manager for the state Behavioral Health Services Division.
According to Neeser, out of the 12 competency evaluation contractors working in New Mexico, 10 of them oppose HB 4, accounting for 25 of the 27 evaluators doing this work. She said they’re concerned about not being able to obtain records needed to complete the evaluations; a lack of legal immunity for evaluators in their decision making; lack of additional compensation for the bigger workload; and the potential for competency evaluations to become unsealed.
Neeser said she’s handed amendments about competency evaluators to Rep. Christine Chandler (D-Los Alamos) and the other HB 4 sponsors but as of Wednesday, “none of those concerns have been addressed.”
“To me, this is a blatant disregard for the professionals who will be adding a tremendous burden to their already cumbersome evaluation process,” she told the committee. “If any legislator had bothered to reach out to the contract evaluators, they would have understood the number of evaluators with concerns.”
Later in the hearing, Sen. Anthony Thornton (R-Sandia Park) asked Chandler if she has worked with the evaluators to see whether they’ll be able to handle the increased workload. Chandler said she spoke with an unnamed University of New Mexico representative about the need for more forensic psychologists. She didn’t mention any conversations with evaluators.
“We are investing in expanding our behavioral health system. The Senate has been showing leadership on that in coordination with the House,” Chandler said. “It is our expectation that the investments that we’re making on the behavioral health side will also be investments on needs of the courts and other evaluation systems, so if there is a gap — and I wouldn’t dispute there may be a gap — the intent is to expand on services.”
Thornton noted that Neeser, who was sitting in the audience, was shaking her head, and asked Neeser to comment on any concerns. Committee Chair Sen. Joseph Cervantes (D-Las Cruces) stopped him and said, “We don’t do that.”
“We don’t go back to the audience,” Cervantes said. “I assure you that it’s a good practice not to do that, because you’ll be here for weeks.”
Opponents also included the New Mexico Business Coalition, on the grounds that it is not tough enough on crime, and the Public Safety Coalition, because it focuses on new crimes, increased criminal punishment and forced hospitalization.
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