[Lwvcnmtopics] Important Zoom Meeting on Criminal Justice Tuesday, November 9th at 6pm

[Starlyn Brown]

LWVCNM Members please join us via Zoom on Tuesday November 9th at 6pm for a very important panel discussion. This email is long and includes a lot of information about the purpose of the meeting. 

Zoom LWVCNM Criminal Justice Reform Panel Discussion
Tuesday 11/9/21 6pm MST

During summer 2021 LWVCA requested that LWVNM concur with the CA Criminal Justice Reform Position.  The California position is included below as well as the Zoom invitation. This could involve supplementing the current LWVNM Administration of Justice Position (p. 8 of the LWVCNM 2021-22 Member Handbook) with sections of the CA Position or individual Local League adoption of the CA Position in its entirety, specific sections only, or none of the CA Position.  LWV delegates will also have an opportunity during the subsequent 2023 LWVNM Convention ConcurrencePolicy.doc (live.com) for state position consideration or LWVCNM members may vote during the May 2022 Annual Meeting on the Board recommendations for a local league position (LWVCNM Bylaws, p.44 of the 2021-22 LWVCNM Member Handbook).  

During the September 2021 LWVNM Board meeting local league representatives requested deferring consideration of the CA Position until the four local leagues had an opportunity to better educate members.  LWVCNM Board members requested a panel discussion for member education with panel representation providing diverse perspectives regarding both policing and other aspects of Criminal Justice. 

During the 11/9/21 Panel discussion each panel member will be asked to discuss the relevance of the CA Criminal Justice Reform Position under consideration by LWV with application to resolution of the current DOJ/CABQ Consent Decree (aka CASA, Court Approved Settlement Agreement).

Opening questions regarding the CA position will be posed to all panel members followed by LWVCNM member questions posted to the Zoom Chat (guests may attend, however, the 11/9/21 panel objective is CNM member preparation to consider concurrence, so no guest questions will be addressed).

The four Criminal Justice Reform Panel members represent diverse perspectives:
1.	APD Deputy Chief, 
2.	Albuquerque Community Safety Department (ACS, alternative 911 response to police officers when mental health, homelessness, or substance abuse is involved), 
3.	Disability Rights NM Attorney (APD Forward Coalition member), and  
4.	NM Highlands Assistant Professor who also is a LWVNM Director.

APD Deputy Chief Garcia (Chief Medina is celebrating his wedding anniversary 11/9/21). Deputy Chief Eric Garcia has been with the Albuquerque Police Department since June of 1990. He was a patrol officer from 1990-1993 then moved to the Domestic Abuse Response Team. From 1995-1998, Garcia was with the Gang Unit and was then promoted to Sergeant.
In 2004, Garcia was promoted to Lieutenant working with the Field Services Bureau in what are now the Northwest and Southwest Area Commands. DC Garcia worked in Operations Review for some time then was promoted to Commander in 2007 over Property Crimes, Metro Traffic Division and the Special Investigations Division.  In 2013, he was promoted to Deputy Chief of the Investigative Bureau, now known as the Professional Standards and Accountability Bureau.

On June 30, 2021 Chief Harold Medina announced Deputy Chief Eric Garcia will now be using his experience to oversee different units within the department.
APD Deputy Chief Eric Garcia will retain his title of 2nd Deputy Chief and will additionally take on responsibilities of the Deputy Superintendent of Reform. DC Garcia will oversee the Internal Affairs Division, both Professional Standards and the Force Division. Additionally, he will continue to be in charge of crisis intervention, peer support, and behavioral sciences.
“Deputy Chief Garcia has been involved in the reform process at APD since the DOJ first came to Albuquerque,” said Chief Harold Medina. “With his knowledge and expertise, overseeing both Internal Affairs Divisions will prove fruitful for the department.”

Mariela Ruiz-Angel, Director of the Albuquerque Community Safety Department (ACS) established 2021.   ACS mission is to provide a civilian non-uniformed response to 911 calls  involving only mental health, homelessness, and substance abuse.  A uniformed APD backup may be available if the situation develops into a more violent scenario.  On April 26, 2021  Mayor Tim Keller announced the inaugural top leadership team for the innovative new Albuquerque Community Safety (ACS) department. Mariela Ruiz-Angel will serve as the Director, along with deputy directors Jasmine Desiderio and D’Albert Hall. Desiderio will step into the position of Deputy Director of Policy and Administration. Hall will take on the role of the Deputy Director of Field Response.

Ruiz-Angel is the first-ever director of the department, following its creation last year as Albuquerque carved its own path to reimagine public safety. She previously served as the City Coordinator for the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs.
ACS includes trained professionals such as social workers, housing and homelessness specialists, violence prevention and diversion program experts. The department gives 9-1-1 dispatch an option when a community safety response is more appropriate than a paramedic, firefighter or armed police officer. These efforts will bolster expanded investments in violence intervention, diversion programs and treatment initiatives.
As the City shaped the first-of-its-kind department, it conducted a six-month public engagement process, taking input from thousands of Albuquerque residents, community leaders, advocates and experts in related fields.

Mariela Ruiz-Angel is a proud Chicana, born and raised in the border city of El Paso, Texas. She understands the needs of diverse communities and works to empower, educate, and advocate for all Burqueños. Prior to her appointment as Director of ACS, Ruiz-Angel developed and ran Albuquerque’s Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs (OIRA). In her new role leading the third branch of public safety, Ruiz-Angel is working to ensure that the department follows through with its mission of advocating and promoting a holistic, empathic and informed public safety response to behavioral and mental-related calls for crisis. She brings to the City of Albuquerque an extensive background in the fields of education, business development, and corporate customer relations.
Ruiz-Angel holds a Master of Business Administration in Human Resources and a Master of Social Work in Leadership and Administration both obtained from the New Mexico Highlands University. 

Gary Housepian or Maxwell Kauffman, both attorneys for Disability Rights NM, a coalition partner in the APD Forward organization, coordinated their presentation and one of them will represent DRNM perspective on Criminal Justice Reform.
Gary Housepian has been an attorney for more than 43 years. He has devoted those years to providing quality legal services to underserved populations - low-income people and persons with disabilities. That experience has embraced various roles - as legal advisor, litigator and manager - the combination of which has developed attributes of leadership and the ability to be an effective negotiator and coalition builder.  He is the CEO of Disability Rights of New Mexico since April 2018. Prior to coming to New Mexico, he was Executive Director of Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands, the largest public interest law firm in Tennessee for 10 years.  He has held positions as General Counsel for the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities, General Counsel for the Tennessee Department of Human Services, Assistant Attorney General for the State of Tennessee, Managing Attorney of Disability Rights of Tennessee and Staff Attorney with Tennessee Justice Center.  As a lawyer, he has served as lead counsel in a class action settlement for persons with intellectual disabilities on a waiting list for Medicaid Waiver services and participated in numerous health care class action cases in federal courts.

As an Attorney with Disability Rights New Mexico, Max Kauffman seeks to assert legal protections and advocate on behalf of those with physical and mental disabilities. He has a background as a Mental Health Attorney, Law Offices of the Public Defenders, in Albuquerque. He currently sits on the board of Albuquerque’s Mental Health Response Advisory Committee and is also a director of the NAMI NM. Additionally, he stays active in local collaborative stakeholder groups, such as the Bernalillo County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, Diversion and Re-Entry subcommittee, and the Coalition for a Safer ABQ.  He believes strongly in the community’s capacity to shape its future in the field of behavioral health through partnership with local governments, stakeholders, and those with lived-experience.”

Assistant Professor Rebecca Alvarez, PhD, is the LWVNM JEDI Director, and chairs the current 1-year LWVNM Tribal Law Study.  Rebecca Álvarez is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at New Mexico Highlands University, where she teaches Homicide and Policing and Race, Ethnicity, and Policing. Her research focuses on crimes against women and issues of intersectionality in law enforcement and the media. Her book Vigilante Gender Violence: Social Class, the Gender Bargain, and Mob Attacks on Women Worldwide came out in September of 2020 from Routledge. She is currently working on a book about the role of the media and policing in solving serial killings involving women of color.

LWVCA Position on Criminal Justice
 
Criminal Justice Reform
State or National: 
State
Position in Brief: 
The LWV California supports:
● a criminal justice system that is just, effective, equitable, transparent, and that fosters public trust at all stages, including policing practices, pre-trial procedures, sentencing, incarceration, and re-entry;
● the elimination of systemic bias, including the disproportionate policing and incarceration of marginalized communities;
● policing practices that promote safety for both law enforcement officers and the communities they serve;
● collaboration between government and community throughout every stage of the criminal justice system;
● a focus on humane treatment and rehabilitation with the goal of promoting the successful reentry into communities of those who have been incarcerated; and
● reliance on evidence-based research in decision-making about law-enforcement programs and policies (including scheduled, periodic audits of program and policy effectiveness)
Details: 
Policing Practices - constitutional policies and procedures established by law enforcement with input from the communities they serve
● Ensure that crime prevention and promotion of public safety are the primary roles of state and local law enforcement agencies. 
● Build public trust and positive community relationships through police engagement with community members. 
● Encourage community participation in the development of policing policy. 
● Provide police accountability via independent citizen oversight of law enforcement and publicly available data on officer conduct. 
● Disseminate information to the public about policing policies, recruitment, procedures for complaint/commendation, and the rights and responsibilities of citizens and officers in interactions with each other. 
● Provide sufficient psychological services and counseling to meet stress-related needs of police personnel. 
● Staff police departments to reflect the diversity of the communities they serve, and establish recruitment efforts that reflect this principle.
● Train police to identify individuals with mental health conditions, disabilities, or substance abuse/addiction, so that officers will request support from appropriate medical and mental health professionals, with the goal of diverting those individuals into treatment instead of jail. 
● Require all officers to render first aid to people who have been injured as a result of police action. 
● Conduct comprehensive background checks, to include such history as PTSD, domestic violence, sex offenses and affiliations with domestic terrorist groups, for all applicants to law enforcement positions. 
● Establish de-escalation (the use of time, distance, communications and available resources whenever it is safe to do so) and anti-bias training, and ensure that all staff are provided with this training. 
● Authorize minimal use of force during police encounters with the public, and consider deadly force only when necessary to prevent imminent death or serious bodily injury. 
 
Pre-trial Procedures - actions taken after an individual has been arrested, which embody the constitutional presumption of innocence
● Ensure no person suffers discrimination before the law due to their economic status nor should they be subject to risk assessment tools which can produce biased outcomes. 

● Provide adequate numbers of public defenders to defend indigent accused. 
● Provide prosecutors, defense attorneys, court counselors and judges with regular training on alternatives to incarceration, including pre-trial diversion and restorative justice practices. 
● Recognize that mental health conditions and substance abuse/addictions are public health issues, not crimes. 
● Implement the use of specialty courts, e.g. drug treatment courts and restorative justice programs. 
● Consider community-based treatment programs and other alternatives to incarceration when appropriate. 

Sentencing - judgment made after an individual has been declared to be guilty
● Consider the individual circumstances of the person charged and nature of the crime, rather than mandatory minimum sentences. 
● Consider split sentencing and/or alternatives to incarceration when appropriate. 

Incarceration - policies and procedures that apply to employees of and incarcerated individuals in local jails and state prisons
 
● Ensure that all correctional systems provide humane, dignified, non-discriminatory treatment of incarcerated people and personnel, including appropriate healthcare and access to community-based rehabilitation programs.  
● Eliminate the practice of solitary confinement. 
● Ensure that incarcerated people and corrections officers have clear, safe and accessible ways to report abuse.
● Address recidivism by instituting programs that focus on rehabilitation, education, mental health treatment, substance abuse recovery, and transitional programs.
● Adapt case management services to match education, behavior, job training, work, and mental health programs with the needs of incarcerated individuals. 
● Provide sufficient psychological services, including training and evaluation, to meet the needs of corrections officers. 
● Encourage family and community visitations and ways to maintain contact. 
● Eliminate private prisons. Until space in public prisons is available, ensure that private prisons comply with all of the standards for state-run jails and prisons. 

Re-entry - programs in place during and after incarceration to help individuals become successful members of their communities

● Collaborate with community-based organizations to facilitate reintegration of people released from prison. 
● Provide pre- and post-release programs, inclusive of probation services, to prepare as well as assess and address the needs of people re-entering the community. 
● Remove technical violations of parole as a reason to return an individual to prison. 

General - statements which apply to some or all of the above categories

● Standardize data and setting up systems so that information can be easily shared among criminal justice agencies. 
● Rely on evidence-based research in decision making about criminal justice programs and policies. 

ZOOM Invitation
LWVCNM Zoom is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Criminal Justice Reform Panel Discussion
Time: Nov 9, 2021 6:00 PM Mountain Time (US and Canada)
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Meeting ID: 899 5093 8228
Passcode: 036044
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