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After A Pandemic Pause, Visits To Resume At New Hampshire Prisons

http://www.nh.gov/nhdoc/facilities/concord.html

Starting this week, the New Hampshire Department of Corrections is allowing inmates to request in-person visits, which had been suspended during the pandemic, but there will be different processes depending on the inmate's vaccination status.

People held in New Hampshire prisons who have been vaccinated will be able to hug their visitors. They'll also be able to sit at the same table without remaining six feet apart. Those who haven't been vaccinated will not.

Both vaccinated and unvaccinated people in New Hampshire prisons and their visitors will be required to wear masks. 

Visitors will be screened for COVID symptoms. Full details on the state's plans were spelled out in a memo from Department of Corrections Commissioner Helen Hanks.

A spokesperson for the Department of Corrections says this new guidance is an adaptation of the state's guidance for long term care facilities.

The Department of Corrections said if fewer than 70 percent of residents in a facility are not vaccinated, unvaccinated residents won't be allowed in-person visits at all. Depending on those and other factors, the Department says visits will begin the week of June 7th.

Peter Biello is the host of All Things Considered and Writers on a New England Stage at New Hampshire Public Radio. He has served as a producer/announcer/host of Weekend Edition Saturday at Vermont Public Radio and as a reporter/host of Morning Edition at WHQR in Wilmington, North Carolina.
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