[LWVNM Action] Special Session of NM Legislature to begin on July 18.- From KOB4

[Richard Mason]

The special session on public safety in New Mexico will begin on July 18, and it appears that the governor is finalizing her wish list for state lawmakers. That includes pumping the brakes on one of her more ambitious proposals aimed at reworking some of the state’s behavioral health laws.

We only learned the governor was encouraging state lawmakers to significantly rewrite the state’s assisted outpatient treatment laws just a few weeks ago. Now, her team says that is no longer a top priority – at least for the special session.

“The major rehaul of AOT, the governor hears what you’re saying, that it’s too much to do on a special session,” said Holly Agajanian, chief counsel with the governor’s office. “We pared it down to even a smaller redo of the AOT, and I think that what we’re going to do instead is just focus on the people that are more marginal at this, at this juncture.”

Those assisted outpatient treatment laws essentially allow everyday New Mexicans to file petitions to force people with severe mental health illnesses into treatment.

Based on what KOB 4 heard from state lawmakers, the governor wanted to rewrite those laws to make them easier to use. But state lawmakers just don’t think there’s enough time to hammer this out during a special session, which only lasts a few days.

It appears the governor’s office still wants to tweak some definitions in the current law, but that doesn’t mean behavioral health is taking a back seat.

A spokesperson for the governor’s office, Michael Coleman, confirmed that Thursday night:

“The governor’s immediate priority for the special session is habitual offenders who are being declared incompetent and not getting the treatment they need.”

Coleman is referencing a proposal to rework New Mexico’s criminal competency laws, ultimately allowing the courts to mandate certain suspects into behavioral health treatments so they can stand trial.

The governor says this is about the so-called “revolving door.”

“If you’re addicted to drugs and if you also happen to have a behavioral health problem, either one, you’re not competent under our current rules to stand for trial. And while I’m gonna minimize a bit here, the basic thing that happens in that situation is you’re just released back to the community,” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said. “The average number of times for many of them, before a judge in Albuquerque, what did we discover mayor? About 36 times. 36 times!”

State lawmakers have still raised concerns about changing those competency laws during legislative hearings this week, so it appears there is still an uphill battle.

There are only three weeks until the special session begins, and that’s not the only bill the governor wants passed. On top of changing the criminal competency laws, the governor’s office confirmed she is still pursuing a bill increasing penalties for felons with firearms, the unsafe use of public highways and medians act, and new data sharing requirements for law enforcement agencies.

Some state lawmakers have raised concerns about those first two bills as well, so it seems many more discussions need to take place before the special session begins.

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