New Mexico’s Supreme Court Chief Justice David K. Thompson spoke to a joint session of the state legislature yesterday and stressed the importance of the three branches working together to solve problems.
He pointed to a just-developed series of assisted outpatient treatment (or AOT) programs—one of the few funded initiatives that came out of last July’s special session on public safety.
The Judiciary’s Administrative Office of the Courts received a $3 million allocation in August and immediately got to work on creating pilot programs for assisted outpatient treatment and competency diversion.
During yesterday’s speech, Thompson announced that on that same day, the department had launched the first product of that effort—an assisted outpatient program in Santa Fe County’s First Judicial District, with more about to open in other districts.
Thompson said that AOT alone won’t solve every issue that relates to the entanglement of crime and behavioral health, and that initiatives like it rely heavily on cross-governmental cooperation.
“ Together with other programs, public safety initiatives that you are implementing in your funding, we can do our very best to ensure the public safety and the health, I should say, of our community," said Thompson.
"What is more important to me, that the lessons provided is as a conversation between the branches and trying to seek a solution. That was the real success in this program. That itself is part of the answer.”
The Judiciary is calling for an annual $3 million per year budget for AOT and competency diversion with an extra $1.8 million this year.
The total ask for the Judiciary is nearly $300 million for fiscal 2026.
That’s around 3 percent of the state’s totally budget.
It includes a $14 million request to hike pay for the average judicial worker.
Justice Thompson said that the average worker in the executive department makes 18 percent more than does one in the judiciary.
Next year’s judicial budget, if approved, would also include $40 million for software that would provide courts with the ability to generate transcripts as proceedings unfold.
Justice officials claim that the technology will help resolve cases much more quickly.