High hopes for new jail

By ROGER AMSDEN, LACONIA DAILY SUN

LACONIA — The chief purpose of the new Belknap County Community Corrections Center is to provide hope for those caught in the terrible cycle of drug abuse, said Belknap County Corrections Superintendent Keith Gray.

“We want to provide hope for the inmates, their family and friends and their children and the community that we can save lives and restore shattered dreams,” he told a crowd of more than 100 who turned out for a dedication ceremony for the 18,100-square-foot, 72-bed facility which has been built next to the existing jail.

“This is a huge day for us. I guarantee you that we will make a difference,” Gray said, citing the programs which will be introduced at the facility to help inmates deal with their problems and transition back into the community.

The facility is now scheduled to take inmates in late October and recently received a $95,000 supplemental appropriation from the Belknap County Delegation which enabled it to hire four new corrections officers deemed necessary to open the facility.

Gray said the programs which will be offered are designed to go beyond punishment and provide counseling and education programs for qualified inmates who are willing to take responsibility for their own decisions.

“We will have a different type of mentality in the Department of Corrections, something we have learned we need to do in order to deal with the opioid crisis. We have to go beyond punishment to treatment and counseling,” said Gray.

He cited his own experience as having had a major impact on his thinking about dealing with inmates. About six years ago, Gray said, he was serving as a watch commander and talked with a woman whose son had been arrested for drug possession.

He had good grades in school and was a good athlete but things fell apart for him. She said that one day she and her husband realized that their son, for whom they had such high hopes, was an addict and asked me what she should do, said Gray.

When he told her that she could post bail and have her son released she said she didn’t want to do that. She explained that she and her husband would feel more comfortable knowing that their son was in jail where he would be “safe and live, rather than out of jail as an addict who was at risk,”

Gray realized that if he were in her shoes and it was his son, he would have made the same decision.

Also speaking at the dedication ceremony was Belknap County Commission Chairman Dave DeVoy (R-Sanbornton), who chaired the Belknap County Jail Committee, which worked for two-and-a-half years to develop an alternate to a $40 million proposal to build a new jail and then design and build an $8 million facility.

DeVoy said the county turned to the model developed in Sullivan County, which reduced that county’s recidivism rate from 70 percent to 20 percent, and is looking for that same kind of success.

District One Executive Councilor Joe Kenney (R-Wakefield) praised the county for its efforts in creating the new center and brought along a citation rom Governor Chis Sununu commending the county for its efforts.

District Two Executive Councilor Andru Volinsky (D-Manchester) congratulated the county and said it was important to realize that the programs dealing with tough mental health issues will have failures as well as successes and that it is important to continue to “do the best you can.”

District Two State Senator Bob Guida (R-Warren) said the new corrections center represents a “major step forward.”