original article
Tough tactics on gangs debated
By Maggie Shepard (Contact)
Thursday, January 31, 2008
State Rep. Tom Swisstack says it's a good thing the Legislature isn't acting on his tough-on-gangs bills this session, because the latest research suggests the approach doesn't seem to be working.
A better approach, according to research published by the Justice Policy Institute, is in place in New York City, where the emphasis is more on social intervention — such as after-school programs — instead of police action and judicial punishment.
Swisstack said his staff is investigating the research to see whether some of New York's programs can be introduced into or alongside his bills when he presents the measures to the Legislature next year.
Swisstack, a Rio Rancho Democrat, introduced the bills this session, but they were tabled in committee. The bills call for tougher penalties for gang recruitment and enhanced prison sentences for gang members who commit crimes.
"Because this is a serious epidemic occurring in New Mexico, people here (in the Legislature) are actually saying let's look at options in conjunction with the incarceration, and let's see whether or not a bill could be drafted to deal with both of these issues," Swisstack said.
Swisstack is director of the Bernalillo County Juvenile Detention Center and widely considered a leader in juvenile justice issues.
Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz said he was disappointed by the inaction so far.
"We were hoping it would go through, especially based on the fact that Albuquerque passed a gang registration ordinance," he said. "It sends the wrong message . . . (while) we're trying to take control of criminal gang activity in the state of New Mexico.
"It is a major setback for law enforcement," Schultz said, "but we will be back next year trying to get it passed."
Swisstack said his bills are modeled after laws in California and Los Angeles — a metro area notorious for gang activity and for efforts to eradicate gangs.
California maintains a database of gang and suspected gang members that police use to enforce an anti-association law, which prohibits gang members from hanging out together.
But this type of enforcement, along with police department gang units, isn't helping Los Angeles with its gang problem, according to the report from the Justice Policy Institute, a group that describes itself as "dedicated to ending society's reliance on incarceration."
The report — which analyzed about 20 years of anti-gang policy compared to crime and gang activity reports in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York — found gang membership has flourished and gang-related violence has not decreased.
"If we follow Los Angeles, violence actually escalated there," said Diane Wood, director of the Northern Region Office of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico.
"If we could implement some things New York has done, which looks at alternatives, we can make a difference here in New Mexico," Wood said.
Meanwhile, Albuquerque is on track to create an online registry for gang members, similar to a sex offender registry. Gang members on the registry can be removed from the registry after completing an intervention course.
The registry, which became law in September, is modeled after California's database.
The city's has yet to go up on the Web, because it has not convicted gang members yet.
That's because of the slow pace of the court system and because of confusing language in the registry criteria, Bernalillo County Assistant District Attorney Linda Mott said.
Of the 221 cases Mott's Gang Unit is prosecuting, some but not all would apply to the registry requirement that the crime was committed in furtherance or promotion of a gang.
Mott said her prosecutors will recommend registration as a component during sentencing.
But, she said, enforcing the registry will be difficult.
Gang members who have been ordered by the court to register upon release from prison or jail must provide an address — which will be kept from public view for their and their community's safety — as well as vehicle and employment information.
Failure to register with the Albuquerque Police Department's online registry is a petty misdemeanor and subject to a fine and up to 90 days in jail, according to the ordinance.
But Mott said it doesn't have enough "teeth" to get compliance from gang members.
And it also runs the risk of being unconstitutional, said Peter Simonson, executive director of the Albuquerque ACLU office.
"Being involved in a gang is not the same thing as being a sexual predator. It does not have the same sort of stigma as being imminently dangerous to the community," Simonson said.
He said once the city gets its first few members on the Web site, his staff will take a closer look at the registry for constitutional violations.
Meanwhile, Ruben Leyva, director of Youth Development Inc.'s gang intervention program, said youths keep joining and participating in gangs, despite the threat of tougher state laws and despite the threat of the city's online registry.
He said gang violence in Albuquerque has been on the rise. In April, The Tribune reported on a gang war that has claimed at least 11 lives, including two children.
"Some of these kids need to be dealt with in that way," Leyva said, referring to jail time. "But it's not always the answer."
His program offers creative outlets and group meetings where kids from rival gangs meet to see one another as people, not affiliations.
Gangs, Leyva says, are born out of the need for survival and love.
"Tougher legislation isn't always the answer, otherwise we would have eliminated the problem," Leyva said. "What we need is jobs and alternatives: athletics, creative outlets, mentors and case management."
Swisstack said these are the alternatives he has directed his legislative staff to investigate, so that next year, when he presents his package of bills aimed at reducing gang violence in Albuquerque and New Mexico, they might actually succeed.
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