El Rito Media News Services

A bill that would expand restrictions on the placement of inmates in solitary confinement in New Mexico’s prisons and jails spurred strong reactions Tuesday as former inmates and correctional officers sounded off on opposite sides of the issue.

“It’s easy to say solitary confinement is necessary when you are the one locking the door,” said Christopher Herrera, who discussed his experience being incarcerated during a House Consumer & Public Affairs Committee. “It only causes more violence.”

Offering personal experiences and standing in opposition, some correctional officers in the state who attended the committee meeting wearing uniforms said they had personally been assaulted while working the job and maintained the bill would make their jobs more dangerous and difficult while also making prison populations less safe.

House Bill 533 — sponsored by Rep. Tara Lujan, D-Santa Fe — would lower the threshold for what is considered solitary confinement from 22 hours per day to 17 hours per day without rehabilitative programming. The legislation would also raise the existing statutory restriction on housing individuals under 18 years of age in solitary confinement to those under 21 years of age, according to a Legislative Finance Committee analysis, while expanding that restriction to those over 55 years of age as well.

Under the bill, pregnant and postpartum inmates, as well as individuals identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer, may not be placed in restricted housing involuntarily or for purposes of protective custody.

“It creates a lot of strange, sort of illogical provisions [for] us,” said Alisha Tafoya Lucero, cabinet secretary of the New Mexico Corrections Department, prior to the committee meeting. “A few of the things it does: it doesn’t allow people under the age of 21 or over the age of 55, or anybody who has any sort of LGBTQ status, to be placed in any restrictive housing for any time at all.”

“It essentially takes away our management tools,” added Tafoya Lucero, who opposes the bill.

House Bill 533 would also impose new limits on the duration of restricted housing. Under the proposal, no inmate may be placed in restricted housing for more than 15 consecutive days or a cumulative total exceeding 90 days within a 12-month period, the Legislative Finance Committee analysis states.

If an inmate is held beyond these limits, under the bill, the warden or jail administrator must document the justification and develop a transition plan to remove the inmate from restricted housing as soon as feasible.

The committee opted not to vote on the bill to allow Lujan to work more with the Corrections Department, as well as other stakeholders, to refine the intent of the legislation, possibly in an interim committee context after the session. Lujan said she wanted to have the conversations regarding solitary confinement, and had Tafoya Lucero testify, though the cabinet secretary opposes the bill, an unusual structuring of her presentation of the bill during the committee.

“There’s a lot, a lot, a lot of issues in here, and if you want to do this in the future, I would recommend that you sit down with all these people that work there [at corrections facilities] and they can give you firsthand experience,” said Rep. Stefani Lord, R-Sandia Park.

“The intention is always to move the legislation. But to give a voice to this issue is very uplifting,” Lujan said following the meeting. “We obviously don’t like the result that we got but we are going to keep moving forward.”

She characterized the bill as one that would bring New Mexico into alignment with “international standards” in terms of the treatment of prisoners.

Some members of the audience at meeting backed the bill, arguing solitary confinement is an inhumane practice that has bred considerable harm in the state and does not deter violent behavior. Some supporters of the bill sometimes called solitary confinement “torture.”

“People should not be tortured. We need you to understand that we do torture people here in New Mexico,” said Selinda Guerrero of Millions for Prisoners New Mexico. “… It’s called solitary confinement, and it’s done in our name using our tax dollars behind closed doors.”

Jessica Vigil-Richards, warden of Central New Mexico Correctional Facility in Los Lunas, said correctional officers in the state face hardships when they are “assaulted” and “battered” by members of the inmate population.

“It’s just a tool that we use to help rehabilitate that behavior,” said Vigil-Richards in an interview prior to the meeting, adding “As a warden, it just ties our hands in different realms of corrections.”

El Rito Media News Services

Sen. Bill Soules, D-Las Cruces, said his proposal to overhaul the leadership structure of New Mexico’s public education system lost its, well, soul, after undergoing significant changes in the Senate Education Committee, of which he is the chair.

So in an effort to leapfrog over the dying Senate Joint Resolution 3, Soules is pushing a different measure, Senate Joint Resolution 15.

That legislation would still cut the Cabinet secretary position leading the state Public Education Department, a key feature of Soules’ original proposal.

But SJR 15 would leave intact another provision that would have been cut from New Mexico’s Constitution under SJR 3, drawing objections from charter schools.

Both bills propose bringing New Mexico back to having a statewide school board to oversee education policy and funding in the state. But by the time the Senate Education Committee lawmakers finished with SJR 3, the earlier proposal, it included a measure that would require a separate election for members of New Mexico’s Public Education Commission, which authorizes the state’s charter schools.

That committee change came after strong opposition to the original resolution from charter school advocates, who worried SJR 3’s plan to also eliminate the Public Education Commission would have excessively disrupted the system for authorizing such schools.

Calling for an entirely separate election for that body, however, left Soules with a sour taste in his mouth, he told the Senate Rules Committee on Monday.

“I wasn’t happy with my own bill at that point,” he said, referring to SJR 3. “… It wasn’t very feasible, it was going to be confusing.”

Instead, Soules opted for a reimagination of the original legislation in SJR 15, which would keep the Public Education Commission as-is but instead create a nine-member board envisioned as a panel of stakeholders.

Soules said parties including the governor, teachers unions, tribal nations and others would each choose a member to serve on the board. Creating a board of appointed members, Soules said, would help take politics out of the highest level of education decisions.

But SJR 15 still faced opposition last week.

Although the new resolution largely solved the problems charter schools had with the original one, Public Charter Schools of New Mexico Executive Director Matt Pahl still argued that lawmakers should hold off on SJR 15 and study it during the interim.

“It’s a significant change in direction on how we accomplish this, and we have a real great interim committee focused on education issues that have figured out some pretty big things,” he said, apparently referring to the Legislative Education Study Committee. “… We think they’re up to the challenge of figuring out the best path forward with this.”

Others took issue with the lack of clarity in the resolution as it stands over who exactly would serve on the panel, including Amanda Aragon, executive director of the education policy organization NewMexicoKidsCAN.

“It asks a lot of stakeholders, of residents of the state of New Mexico, to say ‘Vote on this, and then later, we’ll decide exactly who would be qualified to serve, who gets a seat,’ “ she said.

Soules said the exact method for appointing those members would be ironed out in separate legislation after the resolution wins approval from voters in a general election, noting those types of details cannot be included in resolutions.

SJR 15 ultimately passed the committee on a 5-3 vote after a separate motion to table the measure failed.

Adrian Hedden

Eddy County commissioners stood in support of a project to store spent nuclear fuel in southeast New Mexico, as a federal court ruling to block such a facility was under debate by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Commissioner voted unanimously during their Tuesday meeting in Carlsbad to sign a resolution sent to the federal government in support of the facility and urging it be built in southeast New Mexico.

Holtec International proposed the facility in 2017, with support from the Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance, a consortium of local government and business leaders that recruited Holtec and provided the land – about 1,000 acres near the border of Eddy and Lea counties.

The site would temporarily store up to 100,000 metric tons of used nuclear fuel sent by rail from nuclear power plants around the country. From there, supporters said, it could be reprocessed for additional fuel or sent to a permanent repository for disposal.

Such facilities to reprocess or dispose of the waste do not exist in the U.S. The rods, after being used by the power plants, are stored at or near the facility, mostly in cooling pools and awaiting a final destination.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission granted Holtec a license for its “interim” storage site for the rods in May 2023, a decision that was appealed by the state of New Mexico, oil and gas industry groups, and environmental advocates. The federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the site in April 2024, and another site proposed by Interim Storage Partners in Andrews, Texas, just over the state line,

On March 5, after consolidating the cases, the U.S. Supreme Court heard verbal arguments by the NRC and the companies to reinstate the licenses, with a ruling expected later this year.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Energy was developing a plan by which it would seek state-level consent for locating interim storage sites for the fuel, publishing a request for proposal looking for projects to site the facility.

The Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance (ELEA) aimed to respond to that call, positing the Holtec site as one with local support, said Eddy County Manager Mike Gallagher.

The facility was opposed by New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and state lawmakers who passed a bill in 2023 to ban high-level waste storage in the state. New Mexico’s congressional delegation also opposed the project.

But representatives of Carlsbad, Hobbs and both counties argued the Holtec site would help diversify the area’s oil-dependent economy, bringing high-paying jobs to the county while solving a national problem: what to do with nuclear energy’s waste.

“This would designate or show that Eddy County, that you all support ELEA moving forward with the DOE’s RFP,” said Gallagher, noting the vote also designated District 4 Commissioner Bo Bowen as the county’s spokesman to discuss the issue with other entities.

Bowen said the cities of Hobbs and Carlsbad signed similar resolutions, with one pending at Lea County.

“It’s just saying we are supporting the use of that land as an interim storage facility,” he said.

Other business

The county’s finance department reported about $5.4 million in revenue collected in January 2025, along with about $7.3 million in oil and gas tax revenue. As of January, the county reported about $520.3 million in overall revenue, and about $412.4 million in expenses.

Eddy County Fire and Rescue gave a presentation on its draft Community Wildfire Protection Plan directing how the agency will use its resources to fight wildfires in the county. The plan was last updated in 2008, despite federal guidance that such plans be retooled every five years.

Public meetings will be held to gain feedback on the draft plan before it is finalized by a vote of the county commissioners.

Commissioners also gave the go-ahead to Fire and Rescue to explore options for offering emergency medical services (EMS) transport, with up to three staffed ambulances. The program would be developed in four phases. By 2029, the county’s EMS division would hire paramedics, and buy and outfit ambulances.

Commissioners voted to cancel a $150,000 contract for oil and gas auditing required by the state of New Mexico. The contract with Total Assessment Solutions was up for a one-year renewal in 2025 for the third and final time allowed under the initial contract, which ran from January to December 2022. Commissioners said the county should not pay for something the state is required to do.

El Rito Media News Services

Andres Valdez’s love for lowriders is a lasting one.

It began when Valdez, an Española native, was a child, picking up trash at his aunt and uncle’s drive-in. With ample space to park, it became a popular spot for lowrider meetups.

“I would always see the lowriders gathering, and I always used to just admire them. … The more they were fixed up, the more they would catch my eye,” he recalled.

He started cruising in the 1990s as soon as he was old enough to drive, adorning his mini-truck with rims and rocker panels, a new sound system and woofers in the truck bed.

“I was always cruising; I loved it since I was about 17. … Decades later now, we’re still doing it,” Valdez said.

It’s a sentiment shared by many in Española, the self-proclaimed lowrider capital of the world. Lawmakers this legislative session may take a step toward putting the love of lowriders on display — and not just during weekend cruises.

‘No better place’ than Española

House Bill 239, sponsored by Rep. Susan Herrera, D-Embudo, with support from several other representatives from Northern New Mexico, would provide $100,000 during fiscal years 2026 and 2027 to study establishing a lowrider museum in Española.

“This is a topic that deserves its own museum,” said co-sponsor Rep. Joseph Sanchez, D-Alcalde. “I think it would attract people from all over the country, potentially all over the world.”

For a legislative session intent on tackling some of New Mexico’s biggest issues, HB 239 is a simple proposal. The one-page bill would task the state Department of Cultural Affairs, which already oversees state-sponsored museums and historic sites throughout the state, to work with the Higher Education Department to complete the feasibility study.

It would examine the specifics of the museum, including property options and governance possibilities, as well as solicit input from community members connected to the proposed museum, Department of Cultural Affairs Deputy Secretary Michelle Gallagher Roberts said in an interview.

“There’s no better place to have this museum, and it really embodies the amazing culture, language, history of Northern New Mexico,” Gallagher Roberts said.

The Higher Education Department also looks forward working on the study if HB 239 should pass, according to spokesperson Auriella Ortiz.

“Low-rider culture in New Mexico has grown to offer educational opportunities, a sense of community, and a place where New Mexicans can show off their knowledge of art, mechanics, and collaboration,” Ortiz wrote in an email.

HB 239 isn’t the only piece of lowrider-related legislation to hit the Roundhouse during the 60-day session. Sen. Leo Jaramillo, a native son of the Española Valley who now represents the area, has filed legislation to create a “lowrider capital of the world” specialty license plate. He is also one of the sponsors of a bill to declare the lowrider New Mexico’s official state vehicle. Neither measure has gotten a hearing yet.

The classic cars themselves made an appearance at the Roundhouse on Lowrider Day on Feb. 11 and are set to make a few more throughout the session.

Preserving tradition

If Rep. Andrea Romero had to choose, the Santa Fe Democrat’s “dream car” would be an electric lowrider.

“It’s so easy to love. It’s such an amazing pastime,” she said.

Romero signed on as a co-sponsor of HB 239 to establish a “starting point” for an Española lowrider museum.

“We’ve wanted this for such a long time, but now we have the real emphasis to actually get it done,” she said.

HB 239 is the first step in the right direction, said Joan and Arthur Medina, the heads of a legendary lowrider family from Chimayó.

“When they proposed it, oh my gosh, my heart just leaped for joy,” Joan Medina said.

The Medinas, whose commitment to lowrider culture, craft and community earned them a spot as one of the Santa Fe New Mexican’s 10 Who Made a Difference in 2022, display their private collection of lowriders and memorabilia in an at-home museum.

But a state-run museum is a good idea, Joan Medina said, because it’ll be neutral — not favoring any single car club.

“It’s open for everyone to have that chance to display, to show,” she said. “Because I’m an enthusiast, I can hardly wait to show what we’ve done as a family.”

The Medinas envision Española’s lowrider museum as a gathering place to teach lowrider traditions and techniques to the next generation. Nothing grabs a teenager’s attention like a lowrider — and Arthur Medina said that’s a way in.

“It’ll be a really, really nice thing to show what we build and what we do,” he said.

It’s not far from reality; some educational programs in Española already incorporate lowriders into their afternoon enrichment activities.

Joan Medina hopes her 5-year-old granddaughter — who is, of course, already learning the basics of pin-striping — will one day get to visit the museum and see her family’s history in its halls.

“She’ll get to see that, once upon a time, our grandparents were a part of getting this done for our generation so we can see how the culture was run and the old ways,” Joan Medina said. “And you know, maybe by her time, they’re going to have greater and grander ideas.”