CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The opening of New Hampshire’s new women’s prison will be delayed for about a year because the state is struggling to find enough people to staff it.
The 101,000-square-foot facility in Concord was set to open this year and is triple the size of prison in Goffstown that currently houses nearly 140 prisoners. The new facility has room for 224 women and will provide much-needed classroom space and health care facilities.
But the state’s unemployment rate of 2.9 percent has made it difficult to find the 74 guards, nurses, teachers and other staffers. Coupled with that was the fact that the Legislature only funded 55 of the positions requested by the Department of Corrections. That funding, first requested in 2015, was only made available this month.
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