The Reporter's Notebook Podcast, Ep. 55: Carissa McGee and Juvenile Justice

The Reporter's Notebook from The Las Cruces Sun-News

This week, we’re talking to Carissa McGee. In 2006, when she was only 16, she was a star basketball player at Mayfield High School and a Gatorade Player of the Year.
But then, everything changed.
McGee was charged after police say she stabbed her mother and older sister Marie, who tried to intervene. Both were hospitalized but survived. The details are much more complicated and involve issues of isolation and mental health. But, ultimately, she entered a no-contest plea to charges of attempted murder and was sentenced as an adult to 21 years. At age 17, she was incarcerated at the Western New Mexico Correctional Facility in Grants alongside much older women.
Due to good time and other adjustments to her sentence, she was granted parole after serving about nine years. Since her release, McGee has proven that she has turned her life around. She has returned to her love of basketball — officiating middle school and high school basketball games for the New Mexico Activities Association. She has also created her own nonprofit, Women in Leadership, an organization that helps women whose lives have been impacted by the criminal justice system.
During this year’s legislative session, lawmakers are considering Senate Bill 64, which would prohibit life sentences without the possibility of release or parole for serious youthful offenders. We’ll talk about what’s in the bill, how things are going, and why Carissa has been testifying in the Legislature, urging lawmakers to support it.
We’ll also be joined by Denali Wilson, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico — the ACLU — who has also been advocating for the passage of the bill.
This week, we're happy to have Carissa and Denali joining us.