By Tom Fahey
The Concord Monitor
CONCORD, N.H. — Corrections Commissioner William Wrenn has launched a spirited defense of the changes to the state’s parole system.
Criticism of the new parole guidelines is being led by “flip- flopping” politicians, he told the Executive Council on Wednesday.
Critics of the bill, including the Adult Parole Board and Republican lawmakers, say it compromises public safety because of its approach to violent and sexual offenders. Under the bill, those offenders must go on parole nine months before theof their maximum sentence. Parole violators are returned to prison for 90 days or the rest of their sentence, whichever is shorter.
Wrenn and other supporters say the bill improves past practice, because inmates will be under close supervision for nine months when they are released, whereas current practice sets them completely free when they finish their maximum term.
The law is now under attack, most notably by GOP gubernatorial candidate John Stephen. Other Republicans recently joined him in criticism, saying the effect of the bill was not made clear to them.
Wrenn noted that Republicans and Democrats sponsored the bill and that it went through months of public hearings before passage.
“Every element of this bill was vetted out fully before it ever came to a vote,” Wrenn said. “A lot of people who now seem to be flip-flopping on this bill were right there at those meetings, sitting there and asking questions. When they say they didn’t know what the bill was all about, that’s a lot of baloney. Everyone understood this.”
On Tuesday, Gov. John Lynch and three Adult Parole Board members met in a closed-door session for more than two hours to discuss the law.
“He wants to tweak this,” board member Alan Coburn said yesterday of the governor. “I don’t know if it will be the way we want, but we were able to tell him that bringing back sex offenders and violent offenders for just 90 days was not appropriate.”
The governor acknowledged the board has problems with the 90-day return policy.
“I’m going to continue to listen to them as to whatever concerns there are, which is what I do with any other law that is new to the books, and we’ll work together to ensure the implementation goes smoothly,” Lynch said.
The bill was co-sponsored by five Senate members, Senate President Sylvia Larsen, and Senate Republican Leader Peter Bragdon of Milford, as well as four House members, including Speaker of the House Terie Norelli and Rep. Neal Kurk, a Republican from Weare.
In its original form, the bill stated “all prisoners who have not been previously paroled” would be released at least nine months before theof a maximum prison term. It was amended later to exempt criminals who were the subject of civil commitment proceedings.
Bragdon and other Republican senators say legislators were led to believe that the new parole provisions would apply only to nonviolent offenders. Bradgon noted that the House description of the bill that members voted on April 21 stated that the parole board would continue to have discretion over violent offenders. Executive Councilor Raymond Wieczorek, a Republican from Manchester, said he is concerned his city will become a magnet for paroled offenders.
He was also worried that the new law increased the workload for parole and probation officers.
Wrenn answered that he is shifting the job of collecting restitution payments from 6,000 former inmates to a central office, freeing up time for parole officers.
He added that inmates released under the new guidelines will be under intense supervision; measures will include required face-to- face meetings with a parole officer every day, electronic monitoring bracelets, and lie-detector tests. Sex offenders will be tracked to make sure they register with the police in their communities, Wrenn said.
According to Wrenn, similar programs are in place in Texas, Kansas and Arizona. “These are states that aren’t known to be liberal states,” he said. “If it can work there, there’s no reason why in New Hampshire we can’t see success with these initiatives. We’re trying not to let politics get in the way here, because this is about public safety.”
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