266 County Farm Road    Dover, New Hampshire 03820    (603) 742-3310

Archives (2002 - 2003)

Update - December 2003

Welcome to new staff member Scott Clement who was hired this month! Congratulations to the 6 officers graduating from the Correctional Officer Training class #63 who were: Jake Collins (he is also our Education Director), Matthew Limoges, Kirk DeRusha, Aaron Dodge, Ernest Haskell, and Dianna Kittredge. Congratulations also go to Della Rollins who was promoted to Assistant Superintendent of Security!

Transition Team: This month Cheshire County officials came to tour including Commissioners Roger Zerba and Bob Moore, Superintendent Rick VanWickler and Captain Robin Cook. Dover Fire Department Assistant Chief Richard Driscoll also visited to help with our evacuation procedures. The building is completely enclosed now with millwork being installed. Painting is also being done in many areas.

Hello from programs!

December 2003 saw three new GED graduates at SCDOC. This brings our total number of graduates to 23 for the year! This is a record breaking year for education at SCDOC! Great job from our adult education staff and congratulations to all of the inmate students who passed!

Community Corrections has been working closely with the programs department on the new ARC (Addiction Recovery Center) program. This program allows inmates who are sentenced to treatment programs to complete the drug and alcohol treatment while incarcerated at the SCDOC. Participants leave the jail early in the morning to attend the program next door at Southeastern NH Services and return late in the evening. This program is an excellent treatment program and allows motivated individuals to complete the court ordered 28 day treatment program in 4 to 6 weeks.

Other programs have been busy as well- 2003 was an excellent year for inmate programming. Many individuals received education, mental health treatment, spiritual guidance and skills training. We are looking forward to the New Year!

See you next month!
Vicki and Jake, Inmate Programs SCDOC

Update - November 2003

Education Director Jake Collins is attending the corrections academy with 5 other staff members. They graduate in December.

Transition Team:

Tours were given for all department correctional staff with a question and answer period afterward conducted by our consultant, Dennis Liebert. Since most of the walls are up it is easy to see the layout of the facility now. The Strafford County Delegation Executive Board also toured this month.

Sgt. Noseworthy and Assistant Superintendent Bird visited Carroll County Department of Corrections to sit in on classification training conducted by the National Institute of Corrections.

Update - October 2003

New staff this month include: Officers Natasha Richard, Tara Elliott, and Michael Landry. Acting Superintendent Warren Dowaliby was officially appointed Superintendent on October 1st by the County Commissioners.

The State Criminal Alien Assistance Program awarded Strafford County Department of Corrections $1,989 for housing illegal aliens. The state also approved our Pre- employment Planning Program grant funding for vocational training and job placement. This is an award of $22,000.

Transition Team:

Thirteen staff spent the night at the Carroll County Department of Corrections new facility for their overnight fundraiser. Consultant Dave Bennett visited to meet with various members of the criminal justice system, including the Community Corrections staff.

Update - September 2003

Transition Team:

This month marked our 1 year anniversary on September 9th. Consultant Dennis Liebert joined us for a visit and discussed move logistics. Norment Security Group Inc. showed us a working model of their final version of the touch screen security system. Minor changes were suggested.

Update - August 2003

Welcome to the new officers who were hired this month: Anthony McKnight, Brian Shorey and Tina Kothman.

This month a booking team was formed as the first in a series of career ladder positions. The successful candidates passed a testing procedure and demonstrated appropriate skills to achieve this duty. Sandy Miller, our Records Director, supervises the team consisting of Officers Dave Bedard, Gary Cormier, Donald Launsby, Tony Harland, and Richard South.

Several officers attended a 3 hours training session on field training officer programs via satellite. This training was sponsored by the National Institute of Corrections and held in the NH Cooperative Extension conference room. Field training officer assignments will be next in the career ladder plan.

We had Oleoresin Capsicum training (O/C) for all staff this month. All new officers were sprayed as part of the initial training for use of this tool. Deputy Thomas Coty from the Sheriff's Department was the instructor.

All staff also attended sexual harassment training taught by Transition Team member Sgt. Laura Noseworthy.

Transition Team news:

Governor Benson toured the new facility after he signed Senate Bill 130 relating to correctional facilities. He toured with the County Commissioners and saw the building at about 60% complete. County corrections personnel also touring the facility were Superintendent Glenn Libby from Grafton, Superintendent Carole Anderson and Richard Doucette from Merrimack, and Superintendent Joe Panarello from Belknap.

The new facility is progressing and looks awesome! Most of the exterior walls are up except in the kitchen area. The interior walls are mostly in with ceiling pours scheduled for next month. Having concrete ceilings in inmate areas is part of the secure design of the facility.

The transition team finished the first draft of the operations guidelines book. This manual will be the guiding document, once approved, of operations of the new jail. All existing procedures were rewritten with many new ones generated.

Here is the update from the programs department of the month of August 2003:

August was a busy month for our teacher Leslie and our summer teachers Bridgett and Nancy - we had seven inmate students take the GED exam this month. Our teachers did a great job keeping the education program running smoothly during the summer months.

Officer Mitchell worked several Fridays this month in the Inmate Labor Room program - this month we placed 4 more inmates in jobs! Great work from the PEPP teacher and program officers.

We are getting ready for the start of fall programs. Several program staff people will be returning. We anticipate several new counseling slots to be available for the inmates.

Vicki and Jake toured the new facility and got to see the areas designated for programs. The new facility is really impressive! We are working hard on developing new and innovative programming for this new state of the art facility!

Update - July 2003

Welcome to new officers who were hired this month: Henry Soucy, Chris Brackett, Chris Brunson, Kevin Boucher and Jeff Fisher!

Sgt. L. Noseworthy trained all staff on restraint chair techniques this month. We were also very fortunate to have Lt. J. Brown from the NH State Prison here to teach Interpersonal Communication. His class is a prerequisite for direct supervision training which all staff will be required to take. Carroll County DOC sent two officers to attend the class. All participants rated the class as outstanding!

Transition Team Update:
Transition Team procured some donated furniture for the new jail which inmates will be assembling and refinishing. We visited York County Jail which is opening their new jail next month. We have been invited back to discuss opening logistics.

The touch screen security system was set up and demonstrated for us and our consultant, Dennis Liebert. Many minor changes were requested but overall the system appears understandable for users. Dennis spent another day with us to work on schedules and other issues coming up.

Programs Update:
Hello from programs- our summer season has been going very well. July has been a busy month for education- we have had 7 inmates take their GED this month! Our teachers tell us that we have another 4 inmates who are also ready for the exam. We hope that this year we have 20 inmates pass the GED- we seem to be well on our way.

Vicki and Jake recently toured the new facility with Captain Bird. Things are really shaping up over there! Captain Bird showed us the construction of the various programming areas; both Vicki and I were very impressed with the layout of program areas. The transition team outlined prospective programming schedules- it looks like there is going to be lots of expanded time for more programming.

In other program news, we hosted 5 diversion tours in July, 5 inmates were issued certifications of completion for the drug and alcohol program- in fact, the drug and alcohol counselor stated that we have had 103 participants in this program year to date.

Julien Olivier attended a National Conference for Catholic Chaplains- I'm sure he has brought back some interesting ideas for the Spiritual Care Team.

The PEPP program has been going well- we have a new placement at a RV service center and the PEPP staff have been discussing the program with local employers.

Update - June 2003

Welcome to Christopher Brunson who was hired as a correctional officer this month!

Congratulations to Officer Jaime Dunn who left us for his new job with Strafford County Community Corrections as a case worker. Now that Strafford County has taken over the monitoring of inmates outside the jail, we have already seen an increase in the number of inmates on the program. We are especially proud that two Correctional officers were hired to work on that team!

Transition Team Update:

Transition Team visited Carroll County this month and toured their new jail under construction. Their facility is closer to completion than ours and looks very impressive.

Congratulations to Officer Tina Hutchinson for being selected for 2 weeks of Direct Supervision Instructor Training in Colorado! She will be going in August to attend the National Institute of Corrections course.

Hello from Programs!

This summer is shaping up to be busy in the program department. Here are some highlights:

GED - We have almost 30 students enrolled - 4 Students took the GED exam this month- Clare our special education teacher is off for the summer months- We have 2 special education teachers filling in for her- Bridgett and Nancy- who both have considerable experience working in correctional education. Welcome Bridgett and Nancy!

Drug and Alcohol Counseling - Matti from SENHS has expanded her hours at the facility- she now is working 2 days per week and covering all the groups at SCHOC. Matti is doing a great job- her groups have been very well attended with an average of over 8 participants in each group.

PEPP Program - We have had three new PEPP classes start- our new students are working hard in the program. We have had 5 inmates go to job interviews and to NH Works with program officers this month.

Counseling - Jen, Lisa and Minnett continue to work as volunteer counselors- they offered over 35 counseling sessions this month.

Inmate Art Work and Poems - Two of the female inmates are organizing and typing for the next inmate poem book. There is a great deal of interest in this next volume and we have had numerous submissions of inmate poetry and artwork.

See you in July!
-- Vicki and Jake, Inmate Programs

Update - May 2003

Superintendent David Funk retired this month. We hope all county employees will join the DOC staff in wishing him the best in his retirement. He had twenty years in the department. Warren Dowaliby is now Acting Superintendent.

Congratulations go to Cpl. Kevin Snyder for coming on board at our Community Corrections as a case worker. He will be missed on day shift! He joins Kelly Dumont and assists in assessing and supervising inmates who are released through electronic monitoring.

Transition Team Update:

The Transition Team traveled to Maryland to view the working mock-ups of our new touch screen security system, fire alarm system, control panels, intercom system, and visiting telephones. We spent a day and a half going over the software system with our consultant, Dennis Liebert, the system provider, Norment Security Group Inc. and our contractor H.E. Sargent, Inc. Many changes were made as each screen was examined for ease of use and accuracy.

A visit was also made to the Merrimack County Pre-trial Services program by Kelly Dumont, Kevin Snyder, Steve Carlisle, and Transition Team members Captain Sid Bird, Sgt. Laura Noseworthy and Officer Dave Bedard. We examined their system and gained some insight as to how a program can be effective.

The building is taking shape as interior walls are going up, particularly in the booking area the cells and interview rooms are mostly in place.

Picture was taken May 30, 2003.

Here is the update from the programs department for the month of May 2003:

Education:
GED results are in- Four inmate students took the GED test in April- Three of these students passed the test! This group really worked hard getting ready to take the test. The fourth student passed all sections but mathematics. He will review math with his teacher and should be ready to retake that section soon.

Labor Room:
The Labor Room program has been in full operation: We have had several job placements this month, thanks to the efforts of the PEPP teacher and Labor Room Officers. Some of the job placements we have had this month: Traffic Control Person, Weaving Machine Operator, and Landscape Laborer.

Anger Management / Counseling:
Anger management and individual counseling continue to be well attended. Lisa and Jenn, our counseling interns from UNH have volunteered to continue counseling over their summer break from school. Lisa will have 2 clients and one group. Jenn will have 3 clients and one group.

Drug and Alcohol Counseling:
Drug and Alcohol groups have been very well attended. We have had 5 inmates complete the 12 required weeks of the program this month. Three inmates were accepted into treatment programs this month. AA and NA programs continue to operate and programs have been contacted about adding new volunteers for these programs.

Jail Diversion Program:
We conducted several jail diversion programs and two school tours this month. We have added three new inmate speakers to our inmate panel. They are excited about the program and have done a great job speaking about the realities of being incarcerated.

Religious Programs:
The spiritual care team continues to meet and has developed many ideas for the new facility. Membership of the SCT seems to be growing! Chaplain visits are always full and many of the evening Bible Study and Catholic Services have had increased participation.

Summer Schedule:
This summer programs will continue to operate as close to our normal schedule as possible. Some of education may be curtailed due to teacher vacations.

See you next month!
Vicki and Jake, Inmate Programs SCHOC

Update - April 2003

Congratulations go to Officers David Baggs, Kathleen Proverb, Joseph Shea for graduating from the 62nd NH Association of Counties Correctional Academy!

On April 25th, Officers Dianne Kittredge and William Britton passed the Physical Fitness test as part of the process of becoming certified officers.

Transition Team Update:
This month the pre-cast panels arrived. These are the walls between pods, units and hallways. Facility colors were finalized - each unit will be colored differently. County Commissioners conducted their first on site meeting with the Transition Team. Staffing was the main topic discussed.

Picture was taken April 25, 2003.

Programs update April 2003

Hello from Programs!

We have started the Labor Room program and Employment Security Project. The programs department has had three inmates placed in jobs this month! The Labor Room gives inmates a chance to attended employment skills classes to develop job interview, resume and application skills. Inmates can then work with correctional officers to use the labor room phone to call employers, review job leads and discuss their vocational plan. Once the inmate has set up interviews, the correctional officer assigned to work with that inmate can take the inmate into the community to visit the employment office, drop off applications and visit the employment office to use their resources for finding work.

Some of the highlights of this month's job placements:

• Officers spent 16 hours out in the community taking inmates to NH Works, job interviews and visiting potential employers
• Inmates sent out over 30 resumes and applications to employers
• Staff assisted inmates in calling over 40 employers for jobs
• Three inmates worked with program officers in the community. Two were hired as a result of inmate / officer job search. One employer hired the third inmate after coming into the jail to interview him!
• Job placements: Oil change and tune up technician, Welder, and Concrete Form Laborer.

We have also started a new counseling group for female inmates. Jen and Lisa our interns from the Counseling program at UNH have taken over the Anger Management group for the females and have added a "women's issues" component to the group. This has been well received.

Jail Chaplain Ralph Flodin attended a National Jail and Prison's Chaplain Association Conference in New Jersey this month. Ralph was impressed with the conference and felt that he was able to get many new perspectives and new ideas from other Jail Chaplains from across the country.

Planning for the new facility continues, our educational staff are revising teaching methods and materials to accommodate the expand programming in the new facility. Classes will be new and innovative giving students the tools to succeed!

-- Submitted by Jake Collins & Vicki Heyl

Update - March 2003

5 New hires came on recently: Gail McKuhen was hired as Administrative Assistant and the following were hired as correctional officers:

• Aaron Dodge
• William Britton
• Steven Gaham
• Sean Bernette

49 staff received First aid/CPR classes in February and March. Officer Steve Pollard was the instructor, Officer Dave Bedard assisted during the March class.

Transition Team Update:

This month Captain Bird and Lt. L. Archambault traveled to Colorado for National Institute of Corrections classification training. Sgt. L. Noseworthy filled in at the jail for Lt. Archambault who is the departmental classification officer. This Objective Classification System we learned about will help integrate the new jail Direct Supervision philosophy with custody levels of inmates and a reward/punishment system for behavior management. Captain Bird and Lt. L. Archambault also visited Rockingham County Department of Corrections to observe their classification system. They are using the same Jail Management System as we are, so their input was very valuable.

Pre-cast cells were delivered this month!! About 10-14 a day were lifted into place with a crane. All 74 units (2 cells per unit) were in place as of March 28th. The Transition Team is currently finalizing the Departmental Policies and Procedures - the entire P&P manual is being rewritten.

Programs Update: March 2003:

Hello from programs! Here are some details of the inmate programming that happened in March 2003:

Results are in from our last GED test! Seven inmate students tested and five of those students passed! This is an excellent pass rate- reflective of the hard work of the inmate students and the excellent guidance and instruction they received from our teachers. This is the first group of students Dover Adult Learning's instructor Leslie worked with. Great job Leslie! The two other students passed all the test sections except for the math- they have been referred to our volunteer math tutor for extra help — once they are ready they can re-take the math test.

• Two additional inmate students were tested for the GED in the month of March. The programs department is working toward offering the GED test on a more frequent basis. This will give inmates who are only here for a short time a better chance of being included in a testing session.
• The Program's Department hosted two diversion tours and two schools tours this month. Dover Alternative School toured the facility and had a chance to meet with two inmates for a question and answer session about the dangers of substance abuse and criminal behavior. Portsmouth Middle School also toured the facility and listened to the inmate speakers.
• Our special education teacher Clare is hard at work assembling the second volume of inmate poetry and artwork. Inmate poems and artwork are collected and published in a book that is available to each housing area in the jail. There are many excellent works coming in for this project.
• The inmate labor room program has been started- We have a number of inmates who have completed the Pre-employment Program and will be assigned to program staff to work toward finding employment.
• Program's staff continues to assist inmates in gaining acceptance into court-ordered drug and alcohol treatment programs. In March there were more than 35 liaison calls place to treatment providers. Two inmates were discharged to treatment centers.
• Stroudwater books of Dover, NH donated 15 boxes of paperback books to our library program. This has given the library a big boost of new titles! This donation was greatly appreciated.
• Program Director Vicki Heyl has been very busy with the work release program- The number of work release participants has almost doubled in recent months. Vicki does a great job handling all that increased paperwork and scheduling!
• Our educational, mental health, religious and recreational programs continue to be well attended. As always we thank our dedicated staff and volunteers!

See you next month!

-- Vicki Heyl, Jake Collins, Inmate Programs

Update - February 2003

Transition Team Update:

The Transition Team visited the Paul T. Leahy Detention Facility in Worcester, Massachusetts. They have a touch screen security system which is similar to ours being installed by Normant Security Systems. Our Consultant, Dennis Liebert visited for 2 days - we worked mostly on staffing needs. We are currently producing finished Policy and Procedures - each totally re-written and newly formatted. Our precast cells should be arriving in March.

Picture shows a panoramic view of the site, taken on 2/27/03 from the roof of the old jail.

-- Captain Sid Bird

Program Update:

Greetings from programs! We had a busy February in the programs department. Our 4 new interns from the University of New Hampshire have started. Mike is assisting with programs on Mondays and has done a great job updating our library as one of his projects. Mike has also been assisting inmates with calls to drug and alcohol treatment centers and has been tutoring some students in the GED classes. Mike is also observing classifications on Fridays. Shane has been assisting in programs on Tuesdays and Thursdays, he has been tutoring in the GED classes, and has been assisting during computer / library recreation times.

Lisa and Jennifer, our two counseling interns have each been working with a caseload of 3 inmates. They are both doing great and enjoy the challenge of correctional counseling!

We administered our first GED exam of the New Year on February 25-27. We had seven inmates complete the test. All of the students worked very hard preparing for test!

We have started our "Labor Room" program. This program allows for inmates who are sentenced to have job assistance from the PEPP counselor and a detail officer. This is an exciting new program that will enable inmates to find a job for work release. PEPP staff will also help other security classifications to develop job goals, practice interviews and develop a resume. After inmates complete this program they can take a computer training class to learn computer basics.

Our jail diversion program continues to be popular- we hosted several court ordered tours and two schools in February.

See you in March!

-- Vicki Heyl, Jake Collins

Industries Update:

The jail Industries continues to do work for our private sector partner Precision Assembly as well as laundry and commissary. We are working to transfer the commissary process to the jail management software (JMS) program and are working to do test runs in order to move into the JMS utilizing telephone ordering. Inmates will dial their orders in over the phone and their account is deducted automatically while our inventory is reduced correspondingly. We expect to have that operational in the next few weeks.

-- Marilyn Allen

Family Reception Center

The Family Reception Center is expanding its hours in the coming month and also adding a support group for families. We continue to appreciate the support from all staff and other departments that have helped to make the Reception Center a success.

Any family members who need pre-mailing of Visitors Handbook and Legal Booklet are encouraged to contact Marilyn Allen and/or stop by the Reception Center located just next door to the Visitor's entrance. See Jail Industries section of our web site to contact me by phone or email.

-- Marilyn Allen

Update - January 2003

Transition Team:

This month 8 staff members toured the Norfolk County Sheriff's Office and Correctional Center in Dedham Ma. The Facility is direct supervision and gave us a great insight as to how such a facility is run.

See the latest sight picture for January 31, 2003.

This month was the start for our contracted medical services Prime Care Medical out of Pennsylvania. Carol Colburn is the regional Director who is organizing the transition which started January 1st.

--- Captain S. Bird

Site picture taken 1-31-03 showing basic foundations of cells on right (next to plastic tent) and booking/intake on left between two tall walls draped in plastic.

Programs: Inmate Programs Update:

The program department at SCDOC started the New Year off with a busy month in January. Leslie, our new teacher from Dover Adult Learning center has been meeting with her new students. We currently have almost 25 students enrolled in GED education. We will be giving our next test starting Feb. 18. Leslie and Clare have been giving their students plenty of homework to get ready for the exam!

We have 4 new interns from UNH this semester: Lisa and Jennifer are graduate counseling interns. Both of them will provide 3 hours a week of individual counseling services to the facility. Mike and Shane are undergraduate Justice Studies interns. They will assist in the educational programming and will also work with inmate classification.

Church services have been well attended and the spiritual care team has been developing ideas for religious programming in the new facility. A survey of the spiritual needs of the inmates and of the staff was conducted, tabulated and analyzed by Julien Olivier. Many thanks for his interesting research!

Mental health programs have been well attended. Our drug and alcohol program is now fully staffed- We welcome Matti, our new counselor from Southeastern Services. She joins Mark in conducting recovery groups here at SCDOC.

Vicki and Jake have been hard at work developing schedules for the new jail and have toured other direct supervision facilities to view inmate programs.

Our jail diversion program has been very busy, and we have also been handling many school and civic tours. We expanded the number of inmate speakers, and now have an inmate panel speak to each of the tours about the realities of incarceration. The success of this program has been phenomenal!

--- Contributed by Jake Collins and Vicki Heyl

Update - December 2002

This month the Transition Team viewed the first pre-cast cell in Milford, NH. The unit is exactly like the other 148 or so that will be trucked here starting in February. Our consultant, Dennis Liebert, visited us from Colorado. We discussed keys and transition tasks. He will be coming back out in February.

-- Captain S. Bird

Supt. Funk examines pre-cast cells. These cells are shipped two at a time and put in place with a crane. They come ready for occupancy (once hooked up) - painted, with toilets, windows, bunks, desks, mirrors and lights.

Greetings from Programs!
We have had a very busy December in the program department, and thanks to the efforts of the program staff we have had several "success stories" this month!

Our latest GED results are in- 7 students passed the exam! Congratulations to Billy, Larry, Steven, Wayne, Keegan, Travis and Brian! You guys did it! Special thanks are also in order for our teachers and educational volunteers: Clare, Barbara, Linda and Tony.

We currently have 25 new students enrolled in GED and Adult Basic Education classes. We have hired a new teacher through Dover Adult Learning Center: Leslie Neff joins our staff. Leslie also teaches at the University of New Hampshire and is very excited about working in the jail. Welcome Leslie! Leslie is taking over for Linda Palmer who is going to be teaching English as a Second Language at Dover Adult Learning Center. We will all miss Linda!

Minnett Induisi hosted the annual jail volunteer Christmas party on December 16. This year we had over 40 dedicated volunteers and staff in attendance. As always, Minnett had an incredible assortment of culinary delights for the guests!

On December 19, SCHOC held the inmate Christmas party. Special thanks to all the volunteers who helped out, especially our live band: Mary, Roger, Ron, Kam, Gerry, Katherine, Ethel, Milton, Dot, Julien and Jane!

Our Christmas party volunteers also coordinated the donation of over 25 children's gifts. These gifts were given to inmates to be able to give to their children during visiting hours on the Christmas holiday. The caring and generosity of the volunteers and the churches they are affiliated with definitely make the holidays a little happier for those kids and a little easier for their incarcerated parents.

The Program department has interviewed 3 prospective interns from UNH for the spring semester. Michael and Shane are from the Justice Studies program, and Lisa is from the graduate program in counseling.

We hope you all had an enjoyable holiday season and we will update the programs page in January!

Jake Collins & Vicki Heyl

Update - November 2002

The Strafford County Appreciation Banquet was held on November 14 at the Cocheco Country Club. Officer Mike McNeil was awarded his 3 year pin. Other attendees were Superintendent D. Funk, Captains W. Dowaliby & S. Bird, Lts. S. Funk & D. Rollins, Sandy Miller, Jessica Vachon, and Cpl. K. Snyder.

The Spiritual Care Team met last month and had their first introduction to the new facility plans. Captain Bird showed the team where the program areas were and what the layout of the whole facility will be. The new facility will have such an increase in program space that the need for more volunteers was discussed.

Nick Manolis (see last month's update) returned to discuss the teamwork profiles he did on the Transition Team members. This team building was an effort to help communication between members.

The Transition Team is continuing to be active. We visited the Long Creek Juvenile Detention Center in South Portland, This facility uses direct supervision as an inmate management system as will our facility under construction. We were given the tour by Mike Curry who is employed there and who used to be our Program Director.

The Transition Team also conducted training for all shifts on the new facility operations - using plans and giving tours to the site. It was the first official introduction of staff to the Transition Team work area. We will be gearing up for a lot of training as the move gets closer - new facility possession expected to be September 13, 2003.

DSI, our software provider, came to provide several days of training on our jail management software. This system will see an expansion of use as we get training accomplished for the various systems it provides.

Jake Collins, our new Education Director is compiling statistics on a regular basis now. For the period of August through November he states we had 45 inmates enrolled in the G.E.D. Program (this month 9 inmates took the G.E.D. test administered by Jake, with seven passing) and Adult Basic Education. Each inmate received about 15 hours of instruction. Fifty one inmates are currently enrolled in Jake's Anger Management class, 53 in Drug and Alcohol counseling with 111 individual counseling sessions given. We had two new volunteer math tutors join us - Barbara Murray and Tony Palmer. We also had a new Drug and Alcohol counselor start - he is Mark England. Program is gearing up for their annual inmate Christmas Party on December 19th.

-- Captain S. Bird
12/9/02

Update - November 2002

Several members of the department attended the NH Association of Counties convention banquet on October 8th. Congratulations go to Industries Director Marilyn Allen who received the Employee of the Year award, and to Superintendent Dave Funk who got the Superintendent of the Year award. Other attendees were Captains Warren Dowaliby and Sid Bird, Officer Dave Bedard, Sandy Miller and Jessica Vachon.

The Spiritual Care Team met this month and is beginning to become more involved with the future of the department. Julien Olivier is heading this committee of volunteers who look to assess and/or improve any departmental spirituality issues of the inmates and staff. They meet every month at the Riverside Nursing Home. Jake Collins our Education Director attended this month's meeting.

The Transition Team went to Colorado for four days on N.I.C. funded training to observe three direct supervision facilities and discuss transition issues. We also met with our consultant to organize and assess what we had seen. The facilities were all run by Sheriff departments. The three facilities were: Larimer County, Broomfield County and Weld County jails.

Nick Manolis from Primex met with the Transition Team in order to enhance teamwork. Team members filled out online questionnaires which will give feedback profiles of our ways of communicating. In November Nick is scheduled to work the results with the team.

-- Captain S. Bird

Update - September 2002

September 5th was the annual Volunteer Banquet night at the Riverside Rest Home and awards for service in our department were given to Linda Palmer (3 mos.), Nora Irving (3 mos.), Tom Warming ton (6 mos.), Barbara Moulton (9 months), Sharon Parent (1 year), Claire MacDonald (3 years), Jane Olivier (5 years), John Kardulas (9 years), Julien Olivier (9 years), Bob Spears (11 years), Rufus Hartford (17 years), Minnette Induisi (20 years).

Congratulations to Cpl. B. Pelkie who was promoted to Corporal this month! His excellent work on day shift will no doubt enable him to transition easily to his new position.

Physical agility testing was conducted on new employees on September 24th with the help of Carroll County Captain, Jim Topham. 7 new employees were tested.

Sandy Miller, Records Supervisor and support staff person Jessica Vachon visited Altoona, Pennsylvania for a week of training on our jail management software. This vender -organized user group helps the vender meet customer needs better and trains users on the system.

The new facility Transition Team started full time on September 9th! For the first week we worked out of NH Cooperative Extension office graciously made available for our exclusive use. On September 12 we moved into space made available in the parking lot next to the jail which houses the Clerk of The Works, a construction meeting room and our office space. A mission statement was first produced and is made available on this web site. The first week we visited Norfolk County Sheriff's Office Detention Center in Massachusetts as an introduction to see how Direct Supervision works.

Update - August, 2002

On July 15th, H.E. Sargent started construction on our new jail. Roads have already been rerouted and the main entrance to the jail is now through a temporary sally port erected behind the jail. Dust is something we have to live with for a while.

Congratulations go to Jake Collins as he started as our Education/Computer Director August 1st! Jake has been working three years as a part time program instructor.

Congratulations also go to newly promoted Cpl. J. McPherson! His FTO work and day shift experience give him excellent preparation for being a first line supervisor.

Lt. S. Funk and Sgt. L. Noseworthy traveled to Colorado in August to take a two week class on training for trainers of direct supervision. All staff will have to take the 32 hour instruction on managing a direct supervision jail.

A national Institute of Corrections training was held on August 12 for transition to a new facility. Two trainers came and spent three days doing a very informative session. A full time Transition Team has been established of: Sgt. L. Noseworthy, Cpl. G. Weisgarber, Off. D. Bedard with Captain Bird as the transition coordinator. We will be working full time starting in September, 2002 towards an opening day in October, 2003. Other staff will be included as needed in a joint effort to seamlessly move to the new facility.

Marilyn Allen received notice that she has won a $10,000 cash award due to her success as our Industries Director from the Foundation for Improvement of Justice Inc... She will be attending a formal banquet to accept in September.

On August 7th, an all day partnering seminar was held in Manchester with a professional communicator. This session included the new jail architects, county and jail personnel as well as the general and private contractors. We worked towards setting up a system to enhance communication and to prevent conflict or at least devise a way to handle it.

August 15th, several inmate phone venders exhibited their systems in response to a bid request. The number of inmate phones will be increasing considerably in the new jail.

Update - May, 2002

Things are moving along for the NEW JAIL! The barn, Industries building and salt shack have all been razed in preparation for the contractor to start. The modular building housing female inmates has been moved to the other side of the jail to make room for construction. Paul Nason has been selected as Clerk of The Works. He comes from an engineering background and has been setting up meetings already. Bid proposals are in and H.E. Sargent from Maine was the low bidder. Contract signing should be forthcoming and once signed, the company has 10 days to start.

Officers E. McGowan, R.South and M. Termath attended the 59th Corrections Academy along with Sandy Miller. Congratulations go to Officer McGowan for achieving the highest grade point average award at graduation ceremonies!

Congratulations also go to Officer K. Snyder who was promoted to Corporal in April!

Inmates are now being involved with facility tours for teenagers. We screen inmate volunteers and at the end of court ordered Diversion tours, selected inmates talk to the individuals about problems leading to jail and what jail is like. This hopefully gives teens an insight as to what jail is like and what behavior leads to getting arrested. We have had a very positive response from the program. It is modeled after the Hillsborough and Grafton County programs.

We have a new Visitors Reception Center run by Marilyn Allen. This center (set up in the next door nursing home) helps families cope with incarceration issues of loved ones. Staffed by volunteers, visitors can get information while they wait or after visiting. There is a Foster's Daily Democrat newspaper article in our visiting section which describes it.

Julien Olivier is leading a Spiritual Care Team on a two year mission to evaluate and improve spirituality in the jail, for staff and inmates. His group meets once a month at the adjacent nursing home and communicates over the internet. Although he is just getting started, it is hoped his efforts will tie in with the Direct Supervision management of inmates which will be used in the new jail.

Our facility was awarded $21,002 for holding criminal aliens last year. This is a federal grant applied for and awarded entirely over the internet. It is called the State Criminal Alien Assistant Program (SCAAP). We received the 2nd highest jail award in NH.

We also received $25,000 in state grant money for hooking up our fingerprint software system to the AFIS (Automated Fingerprint Identification System) run by the state. Captain Sid Bird

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