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SPONSOR: |
Griego |
DATE
TYPED: |
2/5/03 |
HB |
|
||
SHORT
TITLE: |
Speedy
Court Hearings for Probationers |
SB |
307 |
||||
|
ANALYST: |
Chavez |
|||||
APPROPRIATION
Appropriation
Contained |
Estimated Additional
Impact |
Recurring or Non-Rec |
Fund Affected |
||
FY03 |
FY04 |
FY03 |
FY04 |
|
|
|
|
Significant |
See Narrative |
Recurring |
General Fund |
|
|
|
|
|
|
(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate
Expenditure Decreases)
New
Mexico Corrections Department (NMCD)
Administrative
Office of the Courts (AOC)
LFC
Files
SUMMARY
Synopsis of Bill
Senate Bill 307 amends Section 31-21-15 NMSA
1978 requiring the court to conduct a hearing on the alleged probation
violation no later than forty-eight hours after the probationer was placed in
detention following his or her arrest.
The bill contains an effective date of
July 1, 2003.
Significant Issues
In order
to determine the impact this bill will have on judicial resources, legal and
other personnel, a determination of the number of probation violations is
crucial. In Bernalillo County, for
example, approximately 100 probation violation cases are filed monthly. This equates to 25 probation violations a
week.
·
Impact
on personnel and judicial resources
Hearings require the involvement of judicial
officers, court personnel, transport officers, security, public defenders, and
district attorneys and probation officers and can be informal on the violation
charged. The hearings may be
time-consuming since it is an evidentiary hearing and the defendant is entitled
to due process rights. The
Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC), in conjunction with the New Mexico
Corrections Department (NMCD), indicates that a speedy hearing would not allow
for adequate time for personnel, nor the defense or prosecution to prepare for
the case. This is true especially if
there are numerous hearings conducted on a daily basis. A joint concern is also how this bill effects probation officers.
This bill may impede on the ability of the probation and parole officers
to perform the other functions of their job (i.e., home visits, regular office
appointments with probationers).
Probation officers may be in court on a regular basis and thus, a need
may arise for additional probation officers.
In addition, a large amount of judicial time would be devoted to
conducting hearings.
·
Forty-eight
hour time requirement
The bill
makes no exception to those offenders who are arrested on Friday evenings since
probation violations would not be heard on Sundays by the courts. The bill also makes no mention of how the
forty-eight hour requirement would affect holidays.
Currently,
according to the NMCD, most courts set hearings on a routinely weekly basis,
not daily, and the forty-eight hour requirement would require daily hearings in
some jurisdictions.
FISCAL
IMPLICATIONS
The bill contains no appropriation. It is suggested by both NMCD and AOC that
there would be a substantial increase in personnel costs to implement the time
requirements proposed in the bill.
ADMINISTRATIVE
IMPLICATIONS
The scheduling
of hearings will require having probation and parole officers available on a frequent
basis. Additional resources may be
needed with respect to the judiciary, public defenders, district attorneys and
the corrections department.
TECHNICAL
ISSUES
It is not
possible to have hearings within 48 hours for persons arrested on Friday
evenings since the 48 hours will be up on Sundays.
OTHER
SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES
The NMCD suggests that a longer time requirement
for conducting hearings would resolve some of the issues regarding scheduling
hearings. NMCD states that hearings
could be required within 5 working days.
The current law has no time period for hearings after detention.