By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org
Lost amid the flurry of proposed budget cuts coming out of Concord is a proposal to slash the Department of Corrections funding to levels considered unsafe by department administration.
The layoffs will endanger staff and inmates, and hurt treatment programming required by court orders, according to DOC Commissioner Helen Hanks.
“The cuts voted on (last week) put the staff at the department if they ultimately occur in an unsafe working condition, they return the department right back to the Holliday court order for lack of treatment and programming, they make us completely non-compliant with NH RSA 106-L and Pol, and other clear areas of adverse impact. The recidivism rate will rise again and incarceration rates will rise. People will get hurt,” Hanks wrote in an email to legislators.
Rep. Dan McGuire, R-Epsom, wants to eliminate $17 million per year from the department budget. To get there he is proposing to do away with 150 positions across the department.
“These are deliberate cuts that target areas that seem to be overstacked,” McGuire said during the March 21 House Finance Division 1 meeting.
McGuire did not respond to an email seeking comment. He told members of the committee the department made do with 150 fewer positions 10 years ago when it oversaw 2,700 inmates, compared to the 2,000 people currently incarcerated.
“It seems to me justified to ask them to make do with fewer people,” McGuire said.
That sentiment was echoed by Rep. Ken Weyler, R-Kingston.
“If they could deal with it 10 years ago with a lot fewer people incarcerated, they should be able to do it now,” Weyler said.
Of the 150 positions on the chopping block, 58 are currently unfilled, meaning 92 DOC employees will be laid off if the cuts are approved. McGuire cited two staffers assigned to the laundry making $150,000 as an example of staff that can be done away with. But when asked by Rep. Peter Leishman, D-Peterborough, McGuire acknowledged he does not know what the two laundry employees actually do.
McGuire never talked to Hanks or anyone else from the DOC before he put together his proposal, he told the committee, and he has no intention of seeking their input. No one from the department was present when the cuts were discussed last week.
Leishman said the arbitrary staffing cuts make no sense for the department that has been forced to call in the National Guard for help in recent years.
“We’ve had the national guard in there because of staffing issues. If you’re looking to lay off people, we have a long history of staffing problems at the prison,” Leishman said.
Leishman later wrote to Hanks to express his dismay at the way the cuts were formulated without the department’s input.
“Equally as troubling to me was that the chair was unwilling to meet with you to discuss his recommendations. In my nine terms on Finance, I have never witnessed the complete disrespect of a commissioner/department. As one of our most respected commissioners, who is running a complex prison system, I was appalled at the chair’s dismissive tone when members of Division 1 asked for reconsideration of his cuts and inclusion of your input,” Leishman wrote to Hanks.