A bill being drafted ahead of next month's legislative session could allow more thorough oversight of the New Mexico Corrections Department, which rights advocates say is much needed.
In 2021, Rep. Lara Micaela Cadena (D-Doña Ana) was among several lawmakers who sponsored a bill that would have created an official position to oversee the Corrections Department. It didn't pass, but Cadena told lawmakers Wednesday she plans to introduce an updated version in January.
Speaking at a meeting of the interim committee on Courts, Corrections and Justice, Cadena outlined a change in rulemaking for the Department, saying currently it operates under procedures enacted by the Secretary.
"There's not a transparent and public process into these key decisions," she said.
She called for an oversight commission, including people who have been incarcerated, which would appoint an ombudsperson.
Barron Jones, senior policy strategist at the ACLU New Mexico, said without oversight, it is impossible to tell whether prisons are failing inmates.
"It's incumbent on us as a society to make sure that they're coming home better than they went in," he said.
When the bill was last introduced, Corrections Secretary Alisha Tafoya Lucero said that she opposed it because it proposed the office of the overseer be housed within the Legislative Finance Committee, which decides the agency's funding.
Cadena said the proposed location of the office is not yet included in the new bill.
