Citizens for Criminal Justice Reform – New Hampshire

The trustee inmates who wrote a bill to let prisoners reduce their sentences through intense self-improvement told some visiting state reps the other day why that’s a good idea.

Ask a New Hampshire prosecutor to show you the law giving judges the power to impose prison sentences consecutively. He’ll tell you there is none. Ask him to show you the guidelines judges are to use when deciding whether to run sentences concurrently or consecutively. He’ll tell you, there are none. Ask him to show you the law telling the parole board how to handle parole when someone has back-to-back sentences. He’ll tell you, there is none. Ask him if this is a problem. He’ll probably say things are fine the way they are.