2025 New Mexico Statutes
Chapter 33 - Correctional Institutions
Article 3 - Jails
Section 33-3-21 - Commitments by magistrates; confinement in town jail.
Whenever in any incorporated town or village situated more than fifty miles from the county seat of the county in which such town or village is situated any person shall be tried before any magistrate whose precinct or any part thereof is embraced within such town or village for any offense against the laws of the state amounting to a misdemeanor and who shall be convicted thereof and be sentenced to be confined in the county jail, either as a part of the punishment inflicted for such offense or for the nonpayment of the fine and costs that may be assessed against the person, it shall be lawful for the sheriff receiving the order of commitment to confine the defendant in the jail belonging to such town or village for the period or term directed in the judgment or order of commitment. For the purposes of this [section] and Section 33-3-22 NMSA 1978, the jail of such town or village is hereby declared to be a county jail.
History: Laws 1893, ch. 35, § 1; C.L. 1897, § 3233; Code 1915, § 3054; C.S. 1929, § 75-123; 1941 Comp., § 45-219; 1953 Comp., § 42-2-19; Laws 1983, ch. 181, § 16.
ANNOTATIONSBracketed material. — The bracketed material was inserted by the compiler and is not part of the law.
Section exception to 33-3-3 NMSA 1978. — Those convicted of state laws are to be committed to the county jail except in cases where such persons are convicted of such an offense by a justice of the peace (now magistrate) whose precinct is within a town or village more than 50 miles from the county seat. However, the county is still liable for upkeep of the prisoner. 1968 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 68-21.
Law reviews. — For article, "Prisoners Are People," see 10 Nat. Resources J. 869 (1970).
