
The University of New Mexico
NEWS RELEASE
Contact: Tony Ortiz
Deputy Director, New Mexico Sentencing Commission
Phone: (505) 362-5524
Email: tlonmsc@unm.edu
Justice Workload Study Shows Need for Judges, District Attorneys and Public Defenders Statewide
How many judges, district attorneys and public defenders does New Mexico need to properly run its justice system? Researchers at the University of New Mexico and the New Mexico Sentencing Commission presented the findings of a workload study designed to answer that question to the Legislative Finance Committee.
The New Mexico Sentencing Commission is a state agency that is located on the UNM campus and shares facilities with the UNM Institute for Social Research (ISR) and the ISR Center for Applied Research and Analysis. The research head for the workload study is UNM/ISR researcher Linda Freeman, M.A.
The report – entitled “A Workload Assessment Study for the New Mexico Trial Court Judiciary, New Mexico District Attorneys’ Offices and New Mexico Public Defender Department" – was conducted by the New Mexico Sentencing Commission and the UNM Institute of Social Research. Vital to the research was the expertise of the National Center for State Courts and the American Prosecutor’s Research Institute. The project was funded by the New Mexico Legislature.
This study is the first in the nation in which all three components of the justice system were studied simultaneously. While the Legislative Finance Committee and New Mexico Department of Finance staffs determine the net need of each case based on the existing judges, attorneys and staff members, this report includes an assessment of current and potential future staffing needs of the New Mexico Judicial system.
This assessment leads to statewide findings that under current level of cases in New Mexico courts, the trial courts need an additional 24 full-time District Court judges, four Metropolitan Court judges, seven Magistrate Court judges. New Mexico District Attorney’s offices need an additional 41 attorneys, nine investigators, three victim witnesses, 16 full-time and one half-time support staff, while Public Defenders offices in New Mexico need an additional 41 attorneys and 45 full-time support staff.
In addition to determining current personnel resource needs for the New Mexico judiciary, prosecutors and defenders, this workload assessment created a model that will allow Sentencing Commission staff members to forecast staffing needs and make annual updates of the results presented in the published study.
“Accurate information about our justice system is the Sentencing Commission’s first step in making rational adult and juvenile justice policy,” said New Mexico Sentencing Commission Chair Joe Caldwell, who served as both a district attorney and district court judge before being appointed by Governor Richardson to head the Sentencing Commission.
The judiciary and the district attorneys had independently conducted similar workload studies in the past. No assessment has ever been done of the resource needs for indigent defense in New Mexico, as provided by the Public Defender Department. The result has been what Supreme Court Chief Justice Edward Chavez called "a three legged stool with two legs."
According to Caldwell, every year legislators – led by Rep. Henry "Kiki" Saavedra – introduce legislation to correct this problem. Saavedra has been a leader in including public defender and district attorney staffing in all judge bills. This study gives New Mexico Legislators a clearer idea about the exact needs of these three parts of the justice system.
“Planning which involves every branch of government should always be done this way,” said Caldwell.
The New Mexico Sentencing Commission, which also oversees the state’s Sex Offender Management Board and Justice Information Sharing Council, produces as many as 12 research reports each year. This study, as well as over 50 other research reports can be found at http://nmsc.unm.edu.
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