This story was originally produced by the Concord Monitor. NHPR is republishing it in partnership with the Granite State News Collaborative.
Executive Councilor Karen Liot Hill recounted the stories she’d heard while touring New Hampshire’s men’s prison on Wednesday: rats in the kitchen, a reception area shrouded in tarps to catch leaks, maggots falling from the ceiling.
She called the conditions “atrocious.”
Other executive councilors agreed: The need to replace the prison is great. But they weren’t convinced that the $36 million design contract before them was the right one, so they voted it down, further delaying the project that has been tapping on their shoulders for more than a decade.
The rebuild is anticipated to be the largest capital project in state history. If it were started today, councilors expect the total cost to land around $700 million, up from estimates of $600 million in 2024. One councilor said she’d been told the cost could even balloon to $1 billion.
“I think this cost is way too much in terms of the taxpayers. I think we can get a better deal,” said Councilor John Stephen, a Republican from Manchester. He said he felt there wasn’t a “vigorous” outreach process for the contract, and that more bidders and more competition would drive the price down.
The Executive Council approved $10 million in 2024 for the Omaha-based design firm DLR Group to conduct a site study of the planned location, near the current one in Concord.
Most were unwilling to award another contract to that company, however, without seeing the firm’s preliminary design plans or cost estimates and without giving the public a chance to weigh in. Councilors are still waiting on the final report, which is expected in May.
Prison Commissioner Bill Hart said the delay, while manageable, will slow down the already overdue rebuild. State officials have long stressed the need to replace the facility’s aging infrastructure and outdated design, which was first built in 1878 and expanded in the 1980s. The state was prepared to take the leap years ago but punted it when a lawsuit placed a replacement of the women’s prison at the top of the queue.
Delaying also “won’t be good from a cost perspective,” Hart said, but if hitting the brakes is necessary to ensure transparency and find a cheaper option, then that’s what they’ll do.
“This is New Hampshire,” he said. “It needs to be an appropriately priced matter. That will be an important component of whatever it is we do.”
Gov. Kelly Ayotte said there’s “no doubt there has to be action taken” but that state government will look for cheaper options.
The next step is to send out another request for proposals, and Hart said it’s possible that new bids would come in even higher. It could be months before a new contract comes to the Executive Council.
Liot Hill and Councilor Joseph Kenney, a Wakefield Republican, said they would’ve preferred to wait a few weeks for the final report from DLR Group before taking action.
“The choice is potentially between this contract and something more expensive,” Liot Hill said. “I’m not going to take that risk. I don’t think we are doing our taxpayers any kind of a service by proceeding in such a risky fashion.”
Councilor David Wheeler, a Republican from Milford, said he voted against it because of a “gut feeling.” He said didn’t want to get locked into a long-term project that the state may not be able to afford and would rather have a firm produce more design options that they can choose from.
“We may move forward … have all the specifications in place, then we can’t come up with the money,” Wheeler said. “I think that’s a bad direction to go.”
Kenney acknowledged that delaying is more likely to back them into a lawsuit than a solution, but if the Executive Council were to proceed, the Legislature, which appropriates money for capital projects, would also have to be on board.
Depending on the political environment in future years, financial support for a new prison isn’t promised.
The Department of Corrections will go back to the drawing board, officials said, but for now, the project is paused.
“This is likely to be, and for a long time coming, the single largest capital project in the state’s history,” Hart said. “We need to talk about it. We need to make sure that we’re being transparent about it. We need to make sure that we’re doing it the right way, making sure we have a safe facility, secure facility, that protects our citizens, cares for the inmates in a constitutionally appropriate manner, and that we do it for the best price available to our taxpayers.”
