Prison management has become a high-profile issue in New England.
New Hampshire legislators say mismanagement and inattention led to a June 4 prison escape in Concord.
This week Massachusetts lawmakers began asking how a defrocked priest could be killed behind bars.
New Hampshire?s top prison official says that despite all precautions, prison violence could happen here.
But prisoners aren?t the only ones at risk. Some New Hampshire sex offenders are jailed and released without any rehabilitation.
N-H-P-R correspondent John Milne reports:
The case of defrocked priest John Geoghan blew the top off the simmering sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church. A Massachusetts jury convicted Geoghan of molesting a 10-year-old. Witnesses said Geoghan had at least 150 victims.
Geoghan drew 8 to 10 years to prison. It ended up a death sentence. Geoghan was killed in late August. Another inmate has been charged with Geoghan?s murder.
The killing has led to prisoner safety investigations throughout New England, including New Hampshire.
New Hampshire Corrections Commissioner Phil Stanley:
Stanley-sex1
The question that I?ve been asked since that occurred is, could the same thing happen in New Hampshire? And to that I have to say, unfortunately, that it could.
Stanley says one out of five offenders is behind bars for sex-related crimes.
One solution debated in Massachusetts would separate sex offenders from the rest of the prison population. Stanley says New Hampshire can?t do that. Sex offenders stay with everyone else.
Kevin Wright teaches criminology at the State University of New York at Binghamton. When a prison is crowded, he says, much of the security burden falls on corrections officers. Wright told Massachusetts lawmakers this week that guards must become pro-active.
Stanley-sex3
So that you have staff members whose jobs are to find out what?s going on in the lives of inmates before you need concrete and steel to resolve them, before you need the special response teams to resolve them ? and so they get attended to before they?re problems.
Massachusetts calls its staffing adequate. But Stanley says New Hampshire is short-staffed. The ratio of more than four inmates to one corrections officer is the highest in New England. And several jobs have gone unfilled.
But the possibility of violence within the prison may not be the worst problem.
Commissioner Stanley points out that sooner or later, most sex offenders complete their terms and are released.
Stanley-sex4
The numbers of staff that we have to treat sex offenders is just not sufficient. So there are some number of folks who are coming into prison for sex offenses who should get treatment, but they don?t.
There is no treatment at all for female sex offenders. The limited treatment options for men forces officials to pick and choose, Stanley says that?s more effective. Giving a little treatment to everyone does no good, he says.
Stanley-sex5
The sad fact is there are going to be sex offenders who are going to be released without treatment.
The manpower shortage will get worse. Stanley resigned last month and is leaving office tomorrow.
The manpower shortage will get worse. Stanley resigned last month and is leaving office today
For N-H-P-R News, I?m John Milne
