Rep. Bill Tallman, an Albuquerque Democrat who’s not running for office, has the luxury to say what he wants. “The governor just wants people to think we’re doing something,” he said of the special session that begins today (Thursday, July 18).

Like most Dems, he said we must address poverty and mental illness to make a difference. Half the jail population struggles with mental demons, and “we’re swimming in guns.”

“We’re not going to solve that in three days,” he said during a meeting of New Mexico Press Women.

This was in May. It hasn’t gotten better.

Republicans voiced many of the same objections in June. Spending money to “bring legislators back to Santa Fe to pass legislation that is not fully vetted and will have no immediate impact on the state’s violent crime and drug trafficking problems is not what special sessions are for,” wrote House Minority Leader Rod Montoya, of Farmington.

Besides violent crime, Rs want more focus on border issues and reforming the Children, Youth and Families Department.

It’s not every day that Republicans and the ACLU agree on anything, but recently the ACLU of New Mexico and 40-plus other advocacy groups and mental health experts urged the governor to call off the special session. They cited “an obvious lack of consensus between lawmakers on the (continually shifting) legislative proposals” and “little to no opportunities for community feedback.”

The governor insists lawmakers can take a bite out of crime during the special session if they just “roll up their sleeves” and work with her.

Yes, they can pass some bills, but a rush job produces unintended consequences and errors that they have to correct later. Full sessions are a stately dance of hearings and testimony from experts and the public. A bill moves slowly through committees and chambers. Reform packages are the product of months of work before the session.

Special sessions, by custom, have specific goals and consensus.

The governor is most intent on the “criminal competency loophole,” which would stop or at least slow what cops call catch and release. She’s been talking about this since March, but she and her team were slow to release information. We only just learned that since 2017 thousands of people charged with crimes were released because they were incompetent to stand trial.

Two bills would change the law for involuntary civil commitment. The proposed remedy is to change civil commitment law to mandate treatment of mentally ill criminals. Judges would have to advise the district attorney to initiate a petition to commit mentally incompetent defendants charged with violent felonies. Criteria for commitment would be expanded.

Lawmakers have said this is a heavy lift. It could make an immediate difference (and justify a special session), but it’s really complex for an in-and-out special session. Advocates fear the bills will impinge on rights.

Another bill, about loitering on medians, is hardly an emergency. Neither is increasing the punishment for felon in possession of a firearm. (Rep. Bill Rehm, R-Albuquerque, tried for 15 years to get this passed.)

The fifth bill could be useful. That’s to require law enforcement agencies to submit monthly reports to the state Department of Public Safety on crime and ballistics. Nobody wants more paperwork, but I often wonder if anybody understands in detail the kinds of crimes committed all over the state. Albuquerque’s problems are well known, but what are smaller communities seeing?

That said, we know we have a problem, and this is an opportunity for discussion. Lawmakers may not want this session, but they can use their time to chart a course for future crime packages.

Sherry Robinson is a longtime New Mexico reporter and editor. She has worked in Grants, Gallup, the Albuquerque Journal, New Mexico Business Weekly and Albuquerque Tribune. She is the author of four books. Her columns won first place in 2024 from New Mexico Press Women.