BY DAVE CHOATE

Michelle Lavoie doesn’t need much more than the evidence of her eyes to know the New Hampshire Women’s Prison is overcrowded.

“We have people sleeping on bunks out in the middle of the tier, with the lights on 24 hours a day. There’s not much privacy, and it’s very hectic,” Lavoie said.

Lavoie has accumulated ideas and sent letters since she began her 10- to 30-year term for negligent manslaughter in 2004, solutions she said she hopes will help rid the prison of its influx of inmates.

“I think that giving judges more discretion in sentencing would lead to less problems, and so would changing the mandatory minimum sentence with some crimes. I know a girl who got more time for a probation violation than her sentence, and that’s crazy,” she said.

Those problems start and end with the lack of space at the facility, according to Lavoie. She said activities are limited by the lack of open rooms, and also said a day room where inmates could watch television was recently converted into a dormitory for 24 inmates.

“There needs to be fewer inmates. Of course a new facility would help, but if the system isn’t revised, I don’t think it will help all that much,” she said.

Lavoie said she recognizes that the problem is not simply an overabundance of prisoners and a lack of space. She said she feels a larger number of staffers, different sentencing laws and more pleasant and educational activities would go a long way toward accelerating the rehabilitation portion of incarceration.

“The first step would definitely be dealing with the understaffing, because we can’t go outside when we want to, and there’s waiting lists for everything now. We’ve always been understaffed, and we’ve never had a lot of programming and classrooms,” Lavoie said.

Acting warden Joanne Fortier said there are programming opportunities for inmates, and the prison is adding a new program administrator, Laurie Seog, on Friday, July 20. The prison is also actively searching for a new case counselor, Fortier said.

“Case management is important since it helps prisoners efficiently move through the system while meeting their needs, and the needs of the court. The prison is safe and secure, and the inmates have tremendous opportunities here,” she said.

In addition, New Hampshire Department of Corrections public information officer Jeff Lyons and Fortier both said efforts are underway to move some of the inmates to a prison in Strafford County. Lyons said the move should free up space for the Goffstown facility, but that more solutions are being looked at.

“We have to just continue to look at our options. Parole work programs are great because they help inmates rethink their options, so they’ll do well when they come back home,” Lyons said.

Lyons acknowledged that any sentencing changes would have to be enacted by the state legislature. He said that Lavoie’s characterization of individualized punishments would also have to be the result of talks between the legislature and the Department of Corrections.

Fortier said the overcrowding is a problem, but that she’s confident the prison is safe and is taking the right approach.
“It’s overcrowded, but it’s a population we can manage,” she said. “We look to educate and rehabilitate, because education is one of the key components that helps these women succeed once released.”

Lavoie said she hopes changes will be coming soon. Until then, she said her quiet moments will be few and far between.

“We’re always going to have problems in the prison system. I just want them to find alternatives for sentencing so the taxpayers don’t have to pay so much,” she said.