"Brands Door", Eddy County Courthouse, Carlsbad, New Mexico
NEW MEXICO COURT SECURITY ASSESSMENT AND STRATEGIC PLAN:
A SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, RECOMMENDATIONS, AND STRATEGIES
Between June, 1998 and April, 1999,
the Supreme Court of New Mexico sponsored a ground-breaking project, an
assessment of security provisions in the district and magistrate courts of the
state. Carried out through on-site surveys of eighteen courts and a mail survey
of more than 600 persons using and working in the courts, the project's results
were reported in two stages. The first, based on the site visits, described 26
problems, recommended a solution for each, and proposed a strategy for
achieving major improvements in the short term, while the second analyzed the
results of the mail survey and added long term elements to the strategy.
Under the leadership of New Mexico's Supreme Court,
Statewide Court Security Team, and Administrative Office of the
Courts, and funded by the State Justice Institute and the State
of New Mexico, the project was carried out by the firm of
Lawrence Siegel — Consultant, Court and Criminal Justice
Facilities, of Columbia, Maryland.
Although the project is specific to
the New Mexico courts and their procedures, its approach is of general
applicability and the security issues it examined are those which would be
found in any state. Believing these lend the project a broad utility, we
underline in the summary the essential topics and the comprehensive process for
realizing security improvements.