SANTA FE, N.M. – Most law enforcement leaders in New Mexico will tell you improving public safety means getting a handle on juvenile crime. 

It’s Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman’s number one priority this legislative session, but the clock is ticking, and one state lawmaker wants to get the ball rolling.

“We just felt we needed to do get going on this,” said state Rep. Andrea Reeb. 

Before becoming a state lawmaker, Reeb was the district attorney in Clovis, where she says juvenile crime is also a growing issue.

“Just reading my paper every day and being involved still at the DA office in my town, I’m seeing it, we’re all seeing it. It’s just not an Albuquerque problem,” said Reeb. 

So, when Bregman told state lawmakers he wants to rewrite New Mexico’s juvenile justice laws — commonly known as the Children’s Code — to get tough on juvenile crime, Reeb got on board right away.

“This code is very old, and it’s been, it’s been needed to be written for a while,” Reeb said. 

Bregman is working with Democratic state Rep. Art De La Cruz on a bill with all of his proposed changes, but it appears it’s still not ready to go.

“They hadn’t filed their bill yet. And so I took it upon myself to just go ahead and file one, get moving on it,” said Reeb. 

Like Bregman’s, Reeb’s proposal would expand the list of crimes where juveniles can be charged as adults, extend the court’s jurisdiction of juvenile suspects to 25 years old and make it easier for the courts to access juvenile criminal records. But don’t think of this as Democrats versus Republicans.

“Hoping that we can just come together on these bills and, you know, maybe get one nice bill going, but we just felt we needed to get going on it,” said Reeb. 

It’s not clear if House committee leaders are planning to even hear Reeb’s bill, or simply wait for Bregman’s proposal. But either way, we are expecting significant debates on the big picture ideas in both proposals.

“There’s decades of research that shows that care and support is what juveniles who make mistakes and come into contact with the legal system need much more than they need incarceration,” said Daniel Williams, an ACLU of New Mexico policy advocate.