Compliance court offers support
According to the New Mexico Department of Transportation, 162 alcohol-related car crashes occurred in McKinley County in 2022.
In an effort to stop people from drinking and driving, Gallup Municipal Court Judge Janell Griego runs a program called Compliance Court. The program is for people who have been convicted of their first, second, or third DWI.
Griego meets with those people, whom she calls her "participants," on the third Thursday of every month at 1:30 pm in her courtroom.
The program is a part of the court’s probation system, and anyone put on probation for a DWI is required to participate. Griego started the program in May 2023.
It gives the participants a chance to talk to Griego in a more informal setting — she doesn’t even wear her robes during the meetings. Participants take the time to discuss any issues they may be having, or tell Griego how they’re doing with their sobriety.
“If they’re doing well, it’s an opportunity for us to give them praise and if they’re not doing well it’s an opportunity for us to catch [the problem] before it gets to the point of violation,” Griego said. “If they violate their probation, essentially what is happening is the city is asking me to place them back in jail and have them serve out the remainder of their sentence.”
Griego said the participants bring a variety of problems to her, from housing insecurity to unemployment and substance abuse problems. She and her staff try to help in any way they can.
“We just try to be well-rounded with what we provide them,” Griego said. "If they don’t have stable housing or stable transportation or money coming in, they’re not going to be successful in probation and potentially they’re going to reoffend, which doesn’t do them any good and it doesn’t do our community any good."
Right now, 76 individuals participate in the program, and Griego said it also gives them a chance to connect with one another. Some of them are each other’s sobriety support systems and they help each other navigate the court system.
Griego also uses the time to provide the individuals with information about the health risks of alcohol abuse.
Gallup Municipal Court Administrator Erin Gutierrez said the program is still fairly new, and they’re constantly adding more elements to it, so she wasn’t able to provide an exact amount when asked how much the program costs the city.
By Molly Ann Howell
Managing Editor
