Citizens for Criminal Justice Reform – New Hampshire

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.

It’ was a disappointing week in Concord. The House Criminal Justice Committee voted to kill a bill to bar the state from contracting with private prisons.