By Phaedra Haywood [email protected]

Credit for the most significant penal reform in New Mexico history belongs not to a lawyer or politician but to a prisoner named Dwight Duran.

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But Albuquerque attorney Alexandra Freedman Smith — David Freedman’s daughter, who became lead counsel on the case in 2016 — said that’s no longer an option due to legislation passed by Congress, the Prison Litigation Reform Act, that keeps courts from enacting sweeping, open-ended action like the Duran decree.

“The [PLRA] simply doesn’t allow for unending decrees anymore, unless the state wants to do that, and they don’t,” she said.

Read full article: https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/the-duran-decree-a-prisoners-quest-for-decent-treatment-brought-reform/article_f57174c0-3966-11ea-89b0-07c4ac6cb55d.html