Sununu Youth Services Center To Undergo Transition

Press release from OCA:

Oct. 13, 2022

The Office of the Child Advocate (OCA) is an independent and impartial agency mandated pursuant to RSA chapter 21-V to provide oversight of state and state-arranged services to children, to promote children’s best interest and effective reforms, and to educate and advise the governor, legislature, commissioner, and the public. The OCA will periodically release issue briefings or statements to inform state child-serving systems and the public on relevant issues in furtherance of the OCA mission and responsibilities.

There is consensus among policy makers, administration, advocates, scholars, and young people to close the Sununu Youth Services Center (SYSC), New Hampshire’s only detention and commitment center for juveniles. Rationale for closure varies from saving the cost associated with operating the 144-bed facility, to empirical evidence demonstrating ineffective and harmful outcomes from incarcerating children, to understanding the increasingly complex needs of children placed at the facility. Consensus among leadership regarding the next steps, however, has yet to occur. There is an impending closure date of March 2023,1 with no true plan for the children currently residing at the facility.

Read the full statement here.

This press release was produced by OCA. The views expressed here are the author's own.