Citizens for Criminal Justice Reform – New Hampshire

Sullivan County is one of the poorest and most remote counties in NH. Job prospects are worse than the more developed southern counties. Many inmates at the Sullivan County jail have mental health issues. Often it's because inmates have come from homes that support and encourage substance abuse.

So it should come as no surprise that Sullivan County experienced one of the highest rates of recidivism in the state. Now, though, when these men and women leave jail, their chances of returning are significantly lower.

This is a terrible secret. The men’s prison in Concord houses a small number of mentally ill patients who have never been convicted of a crime. They are deemed too dangerous to live at the State Hospital, where they might hurt other patients. This difficult group does not belong at the prison either.

The New Hampshire sex offender program received a scathing program audit last November. It said 200 prisoners were going past their minimum parole dates because the program was poorly managed. Jeff Lyons, the Corrections spokesman, said on the front page of the Concord Monitor there was no backlog as of Nov. 30, 2015.

A Supreme Court argument on Monday about whether North Carolina may bar registered sex offenders from using Facebook, Twitter and similar services turned into a discussion of how thoroughly social media have transformed American civic discourse.