Citizens for Criminal Justice Reform – New Hampshire

The first time I met Chris was at a rehearsal for the Catholic choir. Chris was from Kentucky. I figured maybe he was a lapsed Baptist or Methodist - definitely not a Catholic. But, most of us in the choir weren’t Catholic. We just wanted to sing and the choir was a respite from the daily grind of prison.

Prisons all over the country are trying to figure out how to deal with an aging inmate population. Consecutive sentences and aggressive prosecution of crimes that put middle-aged men in prison, have resulted in many more grandfathers spending their golden years behind bars at the New Hampshire State Prison.

A new inmate is delivered to prison like a parcel. The Receiving and Dignostics Unit at the New Hampshire State Prison is a four-story brick cellblock attached to the north side of the grim nineteenth-century main building.