The shift involves a program called Rapid REPAT - Removal of Eligible Parolees Accepted for Transfer. It has already been used in Rhode Island and Puerto Rico.
By LAUREN R DORGAN
Concord Monitor
| Related Article: ICE and RI DOC partner to remove criminal aliens |
CONCORD, N.H. — Gov. John Lynch yesterday proposed sweeping changes to the state’s prison system, changes that would leave about 90 workers jobless, one prison closed, some inmates deported and some potentially sent home to be confined there with ankle bracelet monitors.
The biggest change that Lynch, a Democrat, proposed in his budget address yesterday: shuttering the Lakes Region Facility, a 315- inmate, minimum-security prison that has long been eyed for closure.
The Department of Corrections could close the Laconia prison by July, according to prison system spokesman Jeff Lyons. About 80 corrections staffers work at the Laconia prison, he said; all told, the governor’s office expected 90 cuts across the corrections system. Corrections Commissioner William Wrenn was unavailable for comment yesterday because he spent much of the day in Laconia, Lyons said.
The town of Berlin, N.H. is shown in this 2005 AP Photo. |
Lyons cautioned that corrections layoffs will likely affect every prison because laid-off state employees who have seniority have “bumping rights,” or the ability to take the job of a more junior employee. While Lynch proposed doing away with bumping rights yesterday, it was unclear whether that rule change would happen before the Laconia prison closed.
The Lakes Region Facility, formerly the Laconia State School for the Developmentally Disabled, was not built to be a prison, Lyons said, adding that “it’s always been our least effective and most costly facility.”
Some additional inmates will be sent to the state prison in Berlin. Meanwhile, Lynch said, the Corrections Department is “evaluating expanding the use of electronic monitoring and home confinement for nonviolent traffic offenders - at a cost of $7 a day versus nearly $100 a day per inmate.”
The most surprising plan Lynch unveiled yesterday was to work with the federal government to send some nonviolent illegal immigrants back to their home countries faster.
“There are between 100 and 200 nonviolent illegal immigrants in our prison system whom the federal government already plans to deport,” Lynch said. “The Department of Corrections will enter an agreement with the U.S. Immigration Services to speed those deportations.”
This shift involves a program called Rapid REPAT - Removal of Eligible Parolees Accepted for Transfer. It has already been used in Rhode Island and Puerto Rico.
At present, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers flag an illegal immigrant in state custody with something called a “detainer,” a notice that when the inmate is let out of prison, ICE officials will pick him up, said ICE spokeswoman Paula Grenier.
It wasn’t immediately clear how or whether state officials would be able to cut down the sentences of illegal immigrants. Lyons said that current law requires all inmates to serve until at least their minimum parole date and that corrections officials were considering requesting a state law change on that point.
U.S. Attorney Tom Colantuano, whose office was facilitating talks between state and federal officials, said he’s not worried about an increased number of deported immigrants returning to the country to reoffend.
“If you look at it strictly from a federal prosecutor’s perspective, whether they serve out a whole term or only part of their term doesn’t really change the equation of whether they’re a risk to come back into the country,” Colantuano said.
Meanwhile, renovations to the Berlin prison will start as soon as next week, Lyons said, with inmates and corrections employees converting one of the facility’s two gymnasiums into dorm space. The Berlin prison, which now houses 550 inmates, was built to be expanded, with enough pipes and wiring to handle a population of up to 1,000 inmates, Lyons said.
In his budget address, Lynch also called on lawmakers to rethink corrections more broadly. He suggested partnering with neighboring states to create a 2,000- to 3,000-bed Northern New England Correctional Facility, which, he said, could allow the state to close the “crumbling” prison in Concord and “provide jobs in a struggling part of our state.”
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