Inmate labor free, but costs aren’t only obstacle
By ANNMARIE TIMMINS
Concord Monitor
CONCORD, N.H. — Drive Route 3 through Boscawen and you’ll see the county’s two jails and two nursing homes - the new versions sitting next to the old. County officials have plans for both former buildings, but it’s been slow-going because inmates are doing the work to save the county money.
The county stopped using the old jail nearly four years ago, when it opened its new $23 million facility. But since then, it has been spending about $63,000 a year to keep the old place lighted and heated enough so the pipes don’t freeze, according to Kathleen Bateson, county administrator.
Meanwhile, inmates have been cleaning and painting the old space to ready it for a new life, said Superintendent Ron White. White’s been able to do that work with his budget, thanks largely to the free help of inmates, he said. But costs aren’t the only obstacle.
The county hasn’t decided what the former jail should become.
White said there has been talk of using the building to house female inmates, who may soon outgrow their space in the new jail, or inmates with mental health problems. The county could also rent out cell space to the federal government or state prison for its inmates.
White said the challenge is finding a use that is cost- effective. The federal government pays less a day for bed space than other clients might, White said. Contracting with an agency could also leave the county in a space crunch and unable to use its own newly constructed cell space.
Alternatively, if the county decides to begin a mental health court, where inmates with mental health problems are “sentenced” to treatment, the old jail might be destined for that population. New Merrimack County Attorney Katherine Rogers has said she’s interested in exploring a mental health court but has made no commitment.
Things have moved along a bit faster across the street, at the former nursing home.
The county relocated to its new $46 million nursing home in March and tore down the oldest parts of the old nursing home. In the portion that remains, there is a day care for the children of county employees, created with a grant, and an assisted living facility on one floor for people not yet ready for the nursing home.
The assisted living wing, which has 24 clients but can take 29, will be a moneymaker for the county, Bateson said.
With all the beds full, which Bateson expects to happen this year, the county will collect $708,000 in 2009, Bateson said. More than half that, $400,000, will be a profit, she said. The creation of the assisted living space was paid for with the money borrowed for the new nursing home.
And in March, the Merrimack County Sheriff’s Office will relocate to the first floor of that former nursing home, Bateson said. The sheriff’s office is currently crammed into the basement of the Merrimack County Superior Court on Court Street, said Sheriff Scott Hilliard.
He said the space crunch is unsafe as well as uncomfortable. There are only two holding cells for inmates awaiting court proceedings upstairs. Because men and women can’t be held in a cell together, it’s not uncommon for 12 men to be crowded into one cell and a lone female to be placed in the other.
And if the sheriff’s office has a juvenile in custody, Hilliard has to pay a deputy to sit alone with the juvenile in a separate room. The set-up, he said, is expensive and inefficient.
Attorneys have no privacy when they meet with their clients, in the basement before court, Hilliard said. And the layout means that inmates must be escorted through the offices of staff on their way to and from the courtroom.
Moving the civilian staff to the former nursing home will have another benefit, too, Hilliard said.
Transporting inmates to court requires deputy sheriffs to travel from Concord to the Boscawen jail and back daily. If deputies are stationed in Boscawen, across from the jail, they’ll eliminate some of that driving, Hilliard said.
The county has spent about $10,000 in materials but is using inmates and existing staff to get the first floor of the old nursing home ready for the sheriff, Bateson said. The county’s dispatch service and some staff will likely remain in the court’s basement.
Eventually, Bateson would like to move the county’s administrative personnel from their offices at the county attorney’s building out to the old nursing home. Doing so will free that space for other county services that are renting office space elsewhere in the city, Bateson said. And that’s a money savings, she said, because the county already owns both the former nursing home and the county attorney’s building.
“That’s way down the road,” Bateson said. Since the county took on the two multimillion-dollar bonds for the new nursing home and jail, county officials have tried hard to keep budget costs down, she said. And they are succeeding, she said.
The proposed budget for next year is $72.33 million, which will require a 1.5 percent increase in taxes. “That’s the lowest in years,” Bateson said.
Copyright 2009 Concord Monitor/Sunday Monitor