NHBA Prison Series: Recidivism and Rehabilitation

By Scott Merrill

The New Hampshire Department of Correction’s (DOC) mission statement says its purpose is to rehabilitate and supervise prisoners and to ensure public safety. Yet, according to a DOC study examining cohorts of prisoners who entered in 2017 and 2018, nearly half (47.85 percent) of those serving time in DOC facilities return within 36 months.

To combat recidivism, the DOC provides programs for its inmates aimed at addressing the underlying causes of the behavior that landed them in prison. But some inmates and attorneys say the trauma of prison itself is overlooked and that some programs would be more rehabilitative if offered earlier in an inmate’s time served.

Programs and Rehabilitation of Inmates

Preventing returns to prison means making sure people are ready to be released. According to the National Institute of Justice, rehabilitation involves programs designed to reduce recidivism by “improving their behaviors, skills, mental health, social functioning, and to provide access to education and employment.”

Evidenced-based programs designed to rehabilitate and decrease recidivism at the New Hampshire State Prison (NHSP) include the Sex Offender Treatment program (SOT) and the Focus Program for substance use disorders. These programs must be completed before inmates are eligible for release. Other programs include education, mental health, volunteering, and work.

Chris Slayback, 52, was convicted in 2014 of aggravated felonious sexual assault and sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in prison. As part of the prison’s workforce, Slayback makes keepsake boxes ranging in price from $40 to $150 through the Hobby Craft program at the NHSP in Concord.

“I had wanted to be an artist when I was younger but with life’s obligations I never did,” he says, adding that 65 percent of the sale of products goes to prisoners, 25 percent to the prison, and 10 percent to recreation and entertainment programs. “Now this is something I plan to do for the rest of my life.”

Slayback, who donates a third of his pay from Hobby Craft to the State’s Victim Compensation program, says he tries to demonstrate everything he can to show he is serious about rehabilitation. This includes sitting on multiple committees aimed at rehabilitating prisoners and making staff aware of problems. He is also the charitable events coordinator at the prison in Concord, which has raised over $13,000, and has worked on a victim impact letter.

The Choose Love Program

Slayback has also completed the Choose Love program. In October 2021, the NHSP began offering Choose Love, which was adopted as part of the State’s Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum in 2018. The program was founded by Scarlett Lewis, whose son Jesse was killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012. The DOC says the program teaches people how to respond with love and compassion in difficult situations.

“Choose Love creates an environment where people can be vulnerable,” Slayback says, explaining many prisoners have never had that chance. “The program changes perspectives by allowing people to express what’s wrong and asking what happened to them. Most guys in here have a lot of anger, and learning that this is a secondary emotion, derived from something else, helps us understand there are different ways to react to situations we confront.”

Choose Love Program Director Shannon Desilets says one unique design of the program is that it is peer-facilitated.

“We wanted them to have autonomy and to be able to choose what lessons they wanted,” Desilets says. “The first graduating class at the men’s facility in Concord didn’t want to stop with 12 or 14 lessons; they chose to do all 19.”

Desilets says she has received numerous positive testimonies from inmates in the program and from family members of those incarcerated. She says she intends to design a program that families can do at home that will coincide with an inmate’s work.

Truth in Rehabilitation

Oliver Hooper, a 52-year-old inmate currently serving a sentence of 50 to 100 years after being convicted of aggravated felonious sexual assault in 2006, says he would like to see more focus on the good work prisoners are doing.

“The DOC does a great job documenting disciplinary tickets but if you’ve completed the Choose Love program or Family Connections Center, it’s not always weighted correctly,” he says. “It leans toward disciplinary aspects.”

In 2018 and 2019, the Resident Communication Committee (RCC) proposed a way to track a term reduction program – Truth in Rehabilitation – that would incentivize residents to actively participate in their rehabilitation through education, employment, programming, and volunteerism.

Unlike the Truth in Sentencing law that takes a more punitive approach to sentencing, Hooper says Truth in Rehabilitation, which has not been approved by the DOC, was created by Slayback with the help of other inmates. It includes a tracking system and point values for rehabilitative efforts weighed against disciplinary tickets that result in scores that can be used to assist with sentence reduction and in parole hearings.

Hooper, who has chaired the Resident Communications Committee for several years, says the NHSP needs to do better documenting inmates’ rehabilitative efforts but have so far failed to implement the Truth in Rehabilitation program.

“Many people are doing right from the time they enter prison, and the RCC wants to chart that good behavior,” he says. “We want quarterly rehab efforts from the get-go. We want a class board, almost like a yearly job performance review. When someone goes up for parole or has a hearing, they may need to show good work.”

Sentence Reductions for Good Behavior

In New Hampshire, prisoners serving a minimum term of six years or more can apply for a suspended sentence reduction 12 months before they have served two thirds of their minimum sentence. The law, 651:20, is a way for prisoners to demonstrate rehabilitation and to reduce their time served.

While helping to craft changes to the law, Slayback argued that prior to 2021 prisoners could not file a motion to suspend until they had served two thirds of their sentence, which resulted in lost time for some.

The timing of an inmate’s assessment for the sex offender program depends on an individual’s sentence, with the intent to provide 24 months to complete the program when it is recommended according to a DOC policy and procedure directive for male sexual offender treatment services. In general, it states that individuals are considered eligible when they are within two years of the minimum date.

“The DOC has created an impossible condition for some people,” Hooper says. “If you have a 20-year sentence, they wait until about two years before release to get you into the program. Many guys want to start in on rehab earlier, but the DOC wants people to take it right before they hit the streets.”

DOC Public Information Officer Jane Graham says the DOC does not have any residents with complaints that they are having trouble accessing Sex Offender Treatment (SOT).

“Access to SOT was vetted some time ago through an audit showing that most delays in SOT at that time were due to a resident’s misconduct,” she says. “The Department’s internal audits of access to the Focus program and questions on delays have reaffirmed that significant or repeated institutional misconduct has been the primary barrier to an individual’s timely access to a treatment program.”

While Slayback finds the DOC’s response accurate, he says it fails to address the issue of timing when it comes to suspended sentences.

“If I wanted to apply for my two thirds and a judge tells me I need SOT programing, the only way to get in earlier is if they change the structure of my 20-year minimum sentence,” he says. “I can’t get a 651:20 prior to 12 and half years but wouldn’t be eligible for the program until year 17 or 18.”

Attorney Anthony Naro, who represents clients in prison, says he has had clients in Slayback’s situation regarding suspended sentences and others in the Focus program. He says inmates in these situations can petition the court to suspend the balance of their minimum sentence and do treatment on an outpatient basis.

“But then, the question becomes ‘will they then be paroled if the judge grants a motion?’” he says. “That’s a question to be answered.”

Naro’s biggest frustration is that some people are not getting adequate treatment early enough, whether this applies to sex offender treatment or substance use treatment.

“I had a client that stayed over his reduced minimum because he couldn’t get into the Focus program,” Naro says. “What happens in the meantime, is you fend for yourself, and you have to fight off all these demons.”

Hooper says for drug addicts, it takes a couple years to adjust to prison life, and the earlier they can get into a program the better.

“Years three through five would be a good time to get treatment,” Hooper says. “Over time, without treatment, bad habits are reinforced that could be addressed early on.”

Aside from suspended sentences, earned-time credits are another way prisoners can reduce sentences upon completion of various educational and programs. More than 1,000 sentences were impacted through the earned-time credit program from December 2022 to December 2023.

Graham also points to incentive-based programs which can help reduce sentences. She is involved in the Progressive Pathways program at the New Hampshire Correctional Facility for Women, which is designed to assist residents with self-reflection and rehabilitation based on their individual needs.

Lingering Myths

While people may believe sex offenders have one of the highest recidivism rates in the prison system, Slayback says “this is a total falsity.”

And there’s data to support this.

According to a 2019 US Department of Justice Special Report, “Recidivism of Sex Offenders Released from State Prison: A 9-Year Follow-Up (2005-2014),” people convicted of rape and sexual assault have rearrest rates about 20 percent lower than all other offense categories combined.

Naro says finding the political will to provide the best possible rehabilitation treatment, especially for sex offenders, can be difficult.

“That group is one of the least popular groups of inmates at the prison and they can lose their humanity as a result of the crimes they’ve committed,” he says, adding that most will return to society. “That means we recognize that they have redeeming qualities, and they can be rehabilitated.”