ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman says fixing the juvenile justice system needs to be front and center at the Roundhouse in the upcoming session.

“The time has come, because on real life on the ground we need this legislation,” said Bregman. 

Bregman laid out his ambitious plan to rewrite New Mexico’s juvenile justice laws to state lawmakers Tuesday. 

“My office, after seeing these clear trends of escalating violence involving youth, determined that we needed to take a thorough review of the Children’s Code,” Bregman said. 

Bregman’s office is determined it’s time for a rewrite.

“The last time the Children’s Code was updated in any meaningful way, as far as the Delinquency Act, was in the previous century. It was before the iPhone was even invented, and we all know things have changed dramatically, especially when it comes to juveniles and iPhones,” said Bregman. 

Bregman’s office developed a list of 36 total changes, including expanding the types of crimes where juveniles can be charged as adults, extending the jurisdiction of juvenile services to 25 years old and expanding youth gun restrictions. They’re all aimed at making sure there’s proper guardrails for juvenile criminals.

“It’s just so there’s some consequences to understand that there’s certain laws and norms in our society that people need to follow,” Bregman said. 

Bregman made his pitch to state lawmakers Tuesday who already have some hesitations. 

“It seems like that’s not being applied, that that consideration of their not fully developed frontal cortex is not being applied consistently,” said state Sen. Katy Duhigg. 

“You want to extend the definition of the handgun now to a firearm, and that’s going to be problematic,” said state Rep. Bill Rehm. 

State Rep. Christine Chandler and state Sen. Joseph Cervantes chair the Legislature’s two judiciary committees. They’re essentially the gatekeepers of most public safety bills, and they suggested there are other issues to address. 

“We continue to be committed to looking at the competency law that’s currently in place and making appropriate changes that make sense to us,” said Chandler. “We also are looking at gun violence, juvenile crime issues, and we will, of course, give due consideration to DA Bregman’s proposals.” 

“We’re not interested in things that optically look good. Increasing penalties and sentences always is an emotional reaction to crime, but we know we’ve got to have resources all the way through the system,” said Cervantes. 

House Minority Whip, Republican state Rep. Alan Martinez, says he’s feeling optimistic after this round of committee meetings.

“We’ve realized that crime doesn’t only affect one political party or the other, it affects all New Mexicans, and it’s our responsibility to keep New Mexicans safe. And come up here and come up with some very common sense policy, it’s going to keep our streets safe,” said Martinez. 

There’s still about two months until the 60-day legislative session, where we can expect hundreds of different bills addressing all sorts of issues. That’s when we’ll truly find out if state lawmakers are interested in making Bregman’s proposed changes a reality.