ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico’s top prosecutor wants to start a conversation with lawmakers and the governor in hopes of charting a new course for a state beleaguered by violent crime, poor educational outcomes and persistently dismal child welfare rankings.
Attorney General Raúl Torrez, who took office Jan. 1 after serving as the district attorney in New Mexico’s busiest judicial district, wants to focus on the civil rights of children by providing them with legal representation.
The Democrat says New Mexico is off the charts when it comes to abuse and neglect — and creating a special unit within the attorney general’s office could help turn the tide when it comes to combatting adverse childhood experiences that often result in youth ending up in the criminal justice system.
Torrez outlined priorities for his administration and for the legislative session that begins Tuesday in a recent interview with The Associated Press.
While acknowledging the suite of public safety, bail reform and gun control bills to be introduced by lawmakers, he said he wants more of the focus to be on the role that child well-being plays in the state’s problems.
Torrez worked on one of the state’s highest profile child abuse cases while in private practice and was often asked as district attorney about the source of Albuquerque’s crime and public safety problems.
He said there’s been a lot of talk about drugs and guns but he believes it comes back to what happens when children end up in dangerous or destabilized homes or don’t get the help they need in the classroom.
“The people that we’re trying to detain today are usually kids that have been failed by the system 15 and 20 years before. That’s where they end up,” he said. “And so what I’m trying to do now is move the lens and move my focus not away from public safety, but further upstream to see if there’s a way for us to prevent people from coming into contact with the criminal justice system in the first place.”
Advocates who have been pushing for years for child welfare reforms in New Mexico are excited about the prospects. Some describe it as a “public health crisis,” pointing to scientific research that shows abuse, neglect and other adverse experiences have been known to result in negative outcomes later in life.

Apnews