New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez took to media to warn Utah citizens and lawmakers of adopting the Arnold Foundations Pretrial Risk Assessment Tool by court rule and other bail bond reforms – which has perpetuated a “catch and release revolving door criminal justice system” in New Mexico.
April 18 2018
Eric Holder’s bail reform has now come to Utah – not by drafting and passing legislation – but by new Utah Supreme Court rules that bypass elected officials.
On May 1st, 2018, Utah Courts plan to roll out broad criminal pretrial release reforms that include the state-wide implementation of the Arnold Foundation’s Pretrial Risk Assessment Tool that is supposed to be able to predict whether or not a defendant is going to commit another crime or reoffend – essentially eliminating judicial discretion in favor of a “black box” computerized algorithm ruling.
“New Mexico implemented this pretrial risk assessment tool to devastating results I encourage those in Utah to be very skeptical of voices calling for misleading devices that would result in letting dangerous criminals back out on the street to terrorize communities.” – Governor Susana Martinez (NM)
In Utah, the legislature rejected the Courts’ attempt to delegate themselves the power to implement bail reform in 2016…but that didn’t stop them. They phoned over to former Enron Billionaire John Arnold and asked if he could help the courts implement bail reform by using a proprietary big data algorithm to predict who is going to commit crimes and not show up for court.
Luckily for Utah public officials, they can look to another neighboring state, who, via court rules, implemented the Arnold Foundation tool in New Mexico. The results, of course, were nothing short of disastrous.
Don’t take our word for it. Watch as New Mexico Governor Susanna Martinez recently warned legislators that implementing this new bail reform algorithm will devastate Utah and turn it into the next Albuquerque, New Mexico, where drug dealers, violent felons and sex offenders prey on the community and prosecutors are powerless to stop them.
The question is does it work? Other serious questions regarding the use of such algorithms have gotten the attention of many researchers—are the algorithms biased?
It’s time for Utah public officials to make a stand against Utah courts legislating from the bench. In other states, like what is about to occur in Utah, state courts usurp the power of the legislature and public officials and jam bail reform down the throats of communities before they know what is happening. Waves of repeat criminals thumbing their nose at the system becomes the norm.
In states like New Jersey, Alaska, and New Mexico, legislators are working to repeal in-part or all of the changes made relating to bail reform after witnessing the devastating results.
Elected officials need to do what’s right for the citizens of Utah and stop these dangerous sweeping reforms.
Governor Martinez (NM) Warns Utah…
(transcript)
Good morning. I’m Susana Martinez, Governor of New Mexico.
Before taking office, I was a prosecutor for 25 years.
Keeping dangerous criminals off the streets and behind bars where they belong has always been one of my top priorities.
As leaders in Utah work to consider reforms to bail bonds and pretrial detention rules, I know your top priority is to keep your citizens safe from dangerous and repeat criminals.
Here in New Mexico, we’ve been working hard to crack down on a catch and release revolving door criminal justice system – a problem that irresponsible interpretations and rules implemented by courts and the Arnold pretrial risk assessment tool have only aggravated. New Mexico implemented this pretrial risk assessment tool to devastating results.
I encourage those in Utah to be very skeptical of voices calling for misleading devices that would result in letting dangerous criminals back out on the street to terrorize communities.
Thank you for your time and God bless you as you move forward in working to make your state a safer place.
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