Letters to the Editor

Cover, Feb. 4: “War on Sentences”

Decline

The war on sentences for nonviolent drug offenders is being won slowly at the federal level, but it is being lost here in New Mexico. Our courts still imprison nonviolent drug offenders on serious minimum mandatory sentences, including 18 years for second-offense distribution of small quantities.

While other states have seen a reduction in prison populations, including such progressive strongholds as Texas, New Mexico has seen a 40 percent increase in its female prison population since 2002. The typical female prisoner is a young, nonviolent, drug-dependent mother with a history of mental illness who has been the victim of sexual violence more than once.

Repeal of minimum mandatory sentences for nonviolent drug offenders is not likely as long as a former, overzealous prosecutor holds the veto pen. Indeed, in the last few years, the governor has essentially dismantled the sentencing reform component of the New Mexico Sentencing Commission.

The legislature could give us a small victory in the war by just saying no to the Corrections Department's request for a new 800-bed prison for women. Rather, New Mexico should follow the lead of other states by closing several prisons and retraining staff as community-based drug counselors and probation officers. In the meantime, nonviolent drug offenders will continue to be imprisoned causalities of our failure to act.

Mark H Donatelli
Santa Fe

Arts Valve, Feb. 4: “Finding Demo”

Laying Waste

A New Mexico Museum of Art building—albeit a scale model of one—has been destroyed on order by the head of curatorial affairs, Merry Scully.

I'm not sure which is more frightening: A. the destruction of a piece of art that continually made people look at it and wonder about it, or B. the thought that the museum is in the hands of a curator who decides to destroy a piece of art because essentially she wasn't sure if it was real, or in the conception or someplace else.

The only excuse offered in Enrique Limón's article was that there were conservation issues and the piece itself wasn't intended to be permanent (nor were many historic documents that served their original purposes and happened to be saved). The piece was so fragile it lasted years beyond its original intended use—and required heavy machinery to tear it down. We should all be so fragile.

Richard Yoast
Santa Fe

Santa Fe Reporter