Closing Lakes Region prison looks to be in play as governor and lawmakers look for savings

With one prominent Republican lawmaker calling for the closure of the Lakes Region Facility off North Main Street and many others eager to reverse the runaway costs of the Department of Corrections, the prison could be among the pieces in play when the Governor and Legislature begin tackling the biennial budget next week.

During the past decade, the corrections budget has more than doubled, jumping from $50.9-million in 1999 to $104.6-million in 2009. According to the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies, the Department of Corrections is one of four agencies — the Department of Health and Human Services, the New Hampshire Retirement System and the Department of Education are the others — which together have accounted for 72-percent of the increase in state spending over the past decade.

"There is lots of interest and activity around reducing corrections costs," said Senator Kathy Sgambati (D-Tilton). "They are growing exponentially. Corrections legislation will get a hard, close look this time around."

The growth in expenditures has been driven by increases in the number of inmates and the rate of recidivism. In June 2008, the four facilities — the State Prison in Concord, Northern Correctional Facility in Berlin, State Prison for Women in Goffstown and Lakes Region Facility — with 2,210 beds, housed 2,445 inmates. The Lakes Region Facility with capacity for 400 and 326 inmates was the only facility not filled to overflowing.

In fiscal year 2008, the 514 inmates admitted for parole violations represented a third of all admissions to the prison system.

Representative Neal Kurk (R-Weare) has introduced a bill designed to reduce the population and close the Lakes Region Facility in 2010. House Bill 348 would require prosecutors of all misdemeanor or felony cases, in which force or violence was neither threatened nor applied but carry imprisonment as a possible penalty, to explain to the court why incarceration is necessary and any alternative sentence would be unsuitable. Furthermore, the bill would authorize the court or superintendent of a county jail, ether at or after sentencing, to order a prisoner released to participate in a day reporting, work release or home confinement program. Finally, the bill would order the closure of the Lakes Region Facility in 2010.

Kurk said last week that an estimated 500 of all inmates in the system are non-violent offenders, including those imprisoned for possessing and dealing drugs. Of these 500, some 300, including drug dealers, he said should remain in prison, leaving about 200 who could be released to home confinement.

"Places could be found for the remaining 100 and Lakes Region could be closed and the savings realized in the next biennium," Kurk said.

In fiscal years 2008 and 2009 the budget for the Lakes Region Facility was $10.1-million and $10.4-million. Kurk projected that the bill would reduce the annual intake to the prison system by at least 50 and perhaps 200 inmates a year in the future, eliminating the need to expand the system. "We need to change the penalties for non-violent offenses," he said. "We are simply putting too many people in prison."

Kurk said that a share of the savings achieved by closing the facility could be applied to improving probation and parole programs to reduce the rate of recidivism.

Kurk said that he has encountered resistance from law enforcement officials, including Attorney General Kelly Ayotte, who object to requiring prosecutors to demonstrate the necessity of incarceration. He said that he submitted the bill to Governor John Lynch's office, but as yet has had no response.

Meanwhile, Corrections Commissioner William Wrenn has asked lawmakers to reconsider raising the threshold for imprisonment in cases of theft, which stands for property worth more than $500, as well as questioned whether habitual offenders with motor vehicle offenses other than driving while impaired should be incarcerated.

Paul Cascio, a lieutenant at the Secure Psychiatric Unit in Concord and president of the Local 255 of the New England Police Benevolent Association representing supervisors, said that while the union seeks to avoid layoffs "these times offer a good opportunity for reorganization of the department".

In 2006, Wrenn proposed expanding the prisons in Berlin and Concord and closing the Lakes Region Facility (LRCF). He requested $26.4-million to add 500 beds and a minimum security unit to the Northern New Hampshire Correctional Facility at Berlin and another $4.3-million to build a minimum security unit for 150 inmates at the State Prison for Men in Concord. The two projects would enable the DOC to divide the 300 minimum security inmates housed at the LRCF between Berlin and Concord, then close the facility.

However, the proposal failed to find its way into the 2008-2009 capital budget. The House included $5.3-million in its capital budget to construct a minimum security unit of 150 beds at the facility in Berlin, but the Senate eliminated the $5.3-million and instead proposed applying $500,000 to planning a minimum security unit at Berlin. Ultimately, both appropriations were shelved, though $1.3-million was earmarked for repairs to the stormwater sewer system at the Lakes Region Facility.

Governor John Lynch will present his budget to the Legislature on February 12.