County commissioners consider plan for needed updates to jail

LACONIA — For over a century, the Belknap County Jail at the county complex has slowly expanded, piecemeal, as demands and culture have changed.

The original structure was built in 1890, and slowly expanded over the decades. The jail gained additions in 1947, 1971, 1979, 1989 and a low-security Community Corrections Center in 2017. Underutilization of the new wing, along with a laundry list of maintenance and code issues in the older sections of the building, may be a financial headache in the county’s future.

The CCC wing was built to support Corrections Opportunity for Recovery and Education, or CORE, a new initiative with the goal of rehabilitating low-level drug offenders back into society. The program consists of counseling, teaching life skills, electronic monitoring post release and additional support for offenders to reintegrate into society. As enticing as the program sounds, the CCC has yet to top 60% capacity since its inception, as County Jail Superintendent Adam Cunningham demonstrated with a graph during the county commission meeting Monday.

If CORE "is being underutilized, I think the most direct way to address that would be to see if there are ways to tweak the program, to make it more advantageous to certain defendants for certain types of crimes,” said County Attorney Andrew Livernois at the meeting.

“The CORE program is a big commitment on a defendant’s part,” Cunningham explained.

“They may receive a less intensive, less scrutinized and even a shorter sentence if they just opt to not go into treatment,” Cunningham continued, adding that in the past, harsher sentences were used to motivate offenders to participate.

“If a judge doesn’t want to send people to prison for a drug usage issue, it almost becomes more of a voluntary program to start treatment,” Cunningham said.

Both Livernois and Cunningham cited other programs like recovery court as potentially reducing the number of CORE participants, and mentioned several modifications to CORE to make it more attractive.

“We are still getting CORE sentences, they just aren’t what they were two years ago pre-COVID,” Cunningham said.

“We’ve already made some adjustments to the program in the last few months. It was a very rigid timeline, now it is a needs-based timeline.”

While the CCC has struggled to reach capacity, the county jail has struggled with finding space, and in the past has had to resort to boarding inmates in other counties.

“Should we take a wing [of the CCC] and make it a secure wing?” questioned Commissioner Glenn Waring Monday.

“I don’t know if that’s feasible or something we should consider. We have one side running up to capacity and one side that doesn’t come close, so how do we balance that?”

Cunningham informed Waring that hardening a portion of the CCC to accommodate higher risk inmates would likely cost millions of dollars.

“Glenn, he raised the subject of making it more secure to house the inmates there. But it was indicated by Adam that it could be overwhelmingly cost-prohibitive,” said County Commissioner Peter Spanos in an interview.

“I know Jon Bossey, our facilities manager, and Adam are going to be meeting, getting a ballpark estimate. We don't want to leave any stone unturned here. We want to do what’s best for the county and maximize the taxpayer’s dollar.”

But the underutilization is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the Belknap County Jail.

“This jail has been added on to four times. So we’re actually going back in time as we’re walking up this hallway,” Cunningham said during a tour of the building.

The reception area, a few years old, features soft blue and white tones with a vaulted ceiling. A trio of photographs depicting an autumn river scene rests above a wall of one-way glass where a faceless receptionist speaks with visitors.

Behind reception is the CCC wing, which features the same clean, white look. The doors are steel, but the walls are drywall, unlike the concrete that makes up the bulk of the facility.

“So all these dormitory facilities, see how many empty beds are in here?” Cunningham said as he gestured toward a bunk room with a small group of inmates inside.

“But there’s somebody in this space. So all the space is being utilized. Even if I take all these people out of here and put them in here, I can’t use this room for something else.”

Due to these security differences, only low-risk inmates can be housed here. Medium security and above have to stay in the older wings of the structure. There, the walls are cinder blocks, the windows are made of reinforced glass and the toilets are steel.

“Cunningham has expressed concern about the age and longevity of the facility,” Spanos said.

“I feel the jail is working ... but it is old. The mid section is not air conditioned, and that is an improvement on the ARPA funding list.”

During the tour, Cunningham pointed out several difficulties of remodeling, repairing, and even patrolling the facility due to its sprawling layout. Cunningham also cited a 2012 architectural pitch for a new building by the architect firm Ricci Greene Associates, but the cost was unattractive to county leadership at the time.

“Back in 2014 the jail needed to be extensively refurbished to become compliant with the federal regulations,” Spanos recalled.

The delegation "heard numbers in the $30 to $40 million range. The jail was refurbished and brought up to federal standards for $8 million.”

The Ricci Greene Associates pitch for a new jail would have cost over $42 million in 2012, or about $55 million in today’s dollars.

A 2010 Facilities Assessment Report of the county recommended to “demolish the original jail facility and the intermediate addition and construct a new jail in the same area. These existing facilities have too many deficiencies that make renovation cost-prohibitive. A new jail will allow for jail operation and housing capacity to meet today’s ACA standards, as well as building code, fire code and ADA compliance. Short-term horizon (1-5 years).”

Despite the $8 million dollar upgrade in 2014, there are still visible compliance issues.

County commissioners are required to tour the jail every six months, but representatives are not. Since Cunningham took on the role of jail superintendent in 2020, only one member of the delegation has taken him up on his tour offer, but some members have expressed concern over the facility.

“Chairman Bean, Representatives Bordes and Trottier have expressed concern and interest in what our intentions are,” Spanos said.

“They understand we have somewhat of a wasted space there.”

“I gotta sit down and talk with Adam,” said Rep. Mike Bordes (R-Laconia).

“I’m definitely open to doing something to make sure [the space] is utilized in the best manner possible.”

Rep. Doug Trottier (R-Belmont), who has experience in both corrections and law enforcement, acknowledged parts of the jail are older, and that it was something that needed to be looked at for the future.

“My concern is federal lawsuits against the county with inmates or an attorney because of the conditions,” Trottier said.

“If it’s something that’s concerning, it needs to be looked into.”

Whatever the solution, it will likely be costly.

“We may decide to let sleeping dogs lie,” Spanos said.

“Not shine a light on its ADA facilities or be forced to spend millions on an aging facility. There are just too many unknown quantities here.”

“I’m fiscally responsible, but certain things have to be funded and funded appropriately,” Bordes said.

"'I’m not going to change the oil in my car, I'll just replace the engine when it blows.’ What would have been cheaper?”