DAs scramble to save victim notification system

From NM Politics.net - by Heath Haussamen - When she was a district attorney, Gov. Susana Martinez was instrumental in bringing to New Mexico an automated victim notification system about defendants’ incarceration status and court hearings. So many of the state’s district attorneys were disappointed earlier this year when she pocket vetoed a bill that would have funded continuation of the program at the end of a federal grant by imposing a fee on jail inmates’ phone calls. Now, with federal funding for the system ending today, district attorneys are scrambling to try to find a way to keep the system going. “The district attorneys were absolutely dumbfounded when we found out what happened,” 13th Judicial District Attorney Lemuel Martinez said about Martinez’s veto. He said he still doesn’t understand. Scott Darnell, spokesman for Susana Martinez, said the bill was flawed in several ways. In addition to paying for the automated notification system, he said it would have created “new state employee positions” that “are arguably unnecessary for an automated system.” Darnell said the bill had a sunset provision, so it didn’t ensure long-term continuation of the program. And the governor, he said, wants to ensure that district attorneys use the system to supplement, not replace, the personal relationships between victims’ advocates and victims. Read more