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With advocates pushing, NH House backs Sununu Youth Center replacement

Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester, N.H.
Dan Tuohy
/
NHPR
Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester, N.H.

The New Hampshire House voted Thursday to spend $21.6 million to replace the state’s sole youth detention center. But the battle over the plan's details revealed divides among lawmakers over the direction of the mostly-vacant Sununu Youth Service Center that could continue to play out during the state budget process in coming weeks.

Core questions — like which children should be housed in the facility, how much the state should spend incarcerating minors, and whether the facility’s current leadership can deliver “trauma informed” care — all sparked debate, as child advocates and Sununu Center staff looked on from the House gallery.

“Let’s not be mediocre; let’s do this right," Rep. Jess Edwards, a Republican from Auburn who sponsored the final bill, told colleagues before the final vote. "This is policy and not politics."

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Advocates and state officials, including Child Advocate Cassandra Sanchez, had urged House lawmakers to back the version of the bill that won final adoption. It calls for a 12 bed facility, with a maximum capacity of 18 beds, and would include ”a home-like interior and exterior to the maximum extent practicable.”

But opponents of that approach said the problems that have long plagued the state's approach to treating detained juveniles still persisted, and called for a more sweeping set of reforms.

“We have failed miserably in changing the culture,” said Rep. Marjorie Smith, a Democrat from Durham who led the fight on behalf of the amendment the House initially adopted, by a vote of 200-179, that would have reduced the offenses eligible for admission to the center, and altered staffing ratios.

“The Sununu Center has the same problems as [the former Youth Development Center], and now the director tells us, ‘I know better, this new facility will fix the issues,’ ” Smith argued.

But in a letter to House leadership, advocates argued reducing the offenses that would permit a juvenile to be held at the Sununu Center could spur law enforcement to “upcharge” at-risk youth to hold them in state custody pending a community-based placement.

They also said imposing fresh limits on staffing “would make it impossible to implement a trauma-informed, therapeutic model, thus jeopardizing the safety of the children, staff, and community.”

But supporters of shrinking the center and its staff size, like Rep. J.R. Hoell of Dunbarton, argued that the state was spending too much money locking up too many children whose interests would be better served if they were treated in their communities.

Meanwhile, costs to the state surrounding the Sununu Center are mounting. Officials have failed to meet serial deadlines to close the center, which sits on the site of the former Youth Development Center in Manchester.

Last year, the state created a $100 million compensation fund to settle claims of abuse at the center. Hundreds of plaintiffs have filed lawsuits, alleging physical and sexual abuse there. Eleven former workers have been charged, and the state continues to investigate.

Under a bill lawmakers fast-tracked and Gov. Chris Sununu signed last month to push back the center’s March closure date, the state will spend $1.5 million to keep the center running through June. That bill set aside another $400,000 to study locations for a new center.

The House and Senate have been at odds over the size of any replacement facility for years. The Senate has backed building a 12- to 18-bed facility by November 2024; the House had historically favored a smaller facility.

Prospective locations include the current center site in Manchester, the campus of New Hampshire Hospital in Concord, and the site of Hampstead Hospital.

Josh has worked at NHPR since 2000.

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