On July 29, Gov. Kelly Ayotte announced plans to improve conditions at the Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester by increasing counseling and equipping staff with body cameras. She said in a press release she expects current issues, which include operational problems and a shortage of adequately trained staff, to be resolved before the facility is relocated to a new campus in Hampstead in January 2027.
The announcement comes amid the release of several reports from lawmakers and watchdog organizations alleging abuse. In March, the N.H. Office of the Child Advocate, which oversees child-serving agencies in the executive branch, found in an investigation that failures by state and local leadership produced “concerning” conditions for youth at the facility. The facility currently houses 15 youth aged 13 to 17 who have been detained or committed by the state for charges such as physical and sexual assault, drug possession and sale, robbery and burglary and property offenses, among others.
New Hampshire State Rep. Marjorie Smith, D-Strafford, a longtime advocate for the facility’s reform, said in an interview with The Dartmouth on Aug. 6 that the problems at SYSC are not new. Since 2020, more than 1,000 people who have been detained at the center have alleged physical, sexual or emotional abuse at SYSC, resulting in criminal prosecutions of some former staff and financial payouts to victims.
What is new, however, is that “perhaps the legislature is now willing to pay attention,” Smith said, adding that she sees Ayotte’s reforms as “insufficient” and “putting lipstick on a pig.”
Ayotte did not respond to requests for comment.
Conflicting reports
In July, an investigation by the N.H. Attorney General’s Office, conducted at Ayotte’s request, concluded that the SYSC was “operating within legal boundaries,” and that claims of abuse were “unsupported,” although there was “clear evidence of youth causing serious injuries to staff.” The investigation, which did not conduct interviews with any of the youth at the facility, contested many details in OCA’s report.
Smith said the Attorney General’s report was “dramatically inadequate and inaccurate.”
“The tendency is to want to protect the representatives of the state, and always assume that the young people are wrong, and as a result we have damaged an incredible number of lives,” she said.
N.H. State Rep. Mark Pearson, R-Rockingham, a member of the N.H. House Committee for Children and Family Law, said that while he might “change a word here or there,” he agrees with “99%” of the Attorney General’s report.
“I think it was an honest attempt to get to the bottom of things, and I think the suggestions in there need to be put into operation,” he said. The suggestions include increasing staffing, implementing body-worn cameras, reviewing the leadership structure, creating a more cohesive “operating philosophy,” and establishing a protocol for “possible criminal conduct perpetrated by youth against staff.”
The Attorney General’s Office did not respond to requests for comment.
OCA’s initial investigation, led by former N.H. Child Advocate Cassandra Sanchez, was prompted by a call from a youth in SYSC on March 9. The report alleges that the facility was placed in “lockdown” status for around six to eight weeks, during which the children’s movement, educational programming, time outdoors, recreational activity and interaction with each other was strictly limited. The report does not explicitly state what caused the “lockdown.”
During this period, the OCA reported “no outdoor time allowed at all,” such that the children often “sat and stared at the same four walls for hours on end.”
The Attorney General’s report instead claimed that there was no “lockdown” period. Rather, there was an initial “restriction period” lasting one week, followed by a temporary “modified schedule” for the whole facility implemented in response to “serious misbehaviors.”
According to both reports, movement was restricted, family visits were cancelled, interaction between subunits was prohibited and access to recreational and educational services was limited. The Attorney General’s report, though, claims that some aspects of the regular schedule, such as meals with other subunits, access to the gym and one school period per unit for 50 minutes, were gradually reintroduced after one week.
OCA’s report also described concerns about the use of collective punishment and illegal physical restraints, such as the “prone restraint,” as well as a “lack of consistent rules and expectations” and a culture driven by a “correctional mindset” rather than a “treatment focus” in SYSC
In a follow-up report in April, OCA noted some improvements to schedule consistency and educational access, but reiterated concerns about insufficient staff training in de-escalation, citing SYSC’s use of militaristic training techniques. OCA recommended increasing staffing, training staff in trauma-informed care, discontinuing the use of physical force against children who do not pose an imminent threat and heightened oversight from the Division for Children, Youth and Families. OCA’s final report may take weeks or months to complete, according to assistant child advocate Jason Taylor.
When OCA’s March report was presented to the N.H. Oversight Commission on Children’s Services, a legislative body that works with OCA to oversee DHHS, on May 22, an ad hoc committee was formed to conduct an independent investigation of SYSC. The investigation’s final report, which largely concurred with OCA’s findings, emphasized the need to focus on legislative solutions to “enforce transparency and protect both staff and residents.”
Reform should focus on “protecting children through stronger independent oversight, ensuring staff have the training and resources they need, increasing transparency and accountability and expanding care that promotes rehabilitation while keeping both youth and staff safe,” N.H. State Senator Suzanne Prentiss, D-West Lebanon wrote in an email to The Dartmouth.
According to the OCCS report, when legislators visited the facility in March, they were not permitted to speak with staff or children. Committee members characterized the facility as having a “pervasive” lack of transparency, confidentiality and accountability, in which the DCYF essentially “investigat[es] itself” and staff members fear retaliation for reporting “unsafe conditions” for themselves or the youth to OCA or other watchdogs. OCCS plans to file legislation by September to establish new training requirements for SYSC staff and grant OCA direct authority over the DCYF. It also requested the “immediate replacement” of SYSC Bureau Chief Joshua Nye, who resigned later that month.
Nye did not respond to requests for comment.
The report recommended trauma-informed training for staff in restraint and seclusion, increased counseling, separating DCYF from DHHS to increase its independence and restrictions on strip searches and increased funding for OCA.
DHHS did not respond to requests for comment.
Budget cuts
Last year, OCA was nearly eliminated when the Republican-controlled legislature voted to defund its budget. OCA has been increasingly “sidelined” from state investigations the past several years, Smith said.
Pearson, who said he was “minimally involved” in this effort, said it was driven by “two very different motivations” from fellow Republicans: first, a “free state libertarian philosophy” and second, an “attempt to get rid of” Sanchez, the N.H. child advocate, because of her unwillingness to “work together” with the legislature.
Sanchez did not respond to requests for comments.
The state senate restored some of OCA’s funding during budget negotiations, but the office was reduced from nine staff members to five, limiting the time OCA can spend investigating SYSC, according to the OCA report.
Executive Councilor Karen Liot Hill ’00 said that these changes “seriously diminished” OCA’s capacity.
She also expressed concerns about OCA’s ability to act as an independent watchdog if it is targeted by budget cuts when the legislature “doesn’t like” what it reports. She noted that Ayotte did not renew Sanchez’s term in January.
“There’s some speculation that [Sanchez’s] term was not renewed because she advocated against anti-trans legislation,” Liot Hill said. “If the child advocate is going to be potentially terminated because of a position they’ve taken, how independent can they truly be?”
Ayotte appointed former Manchester police chief Allen Aldenberg to serve as interim child advocate.
N.H. State Senator Debra Altschiller, D-Stratham, described Aldenberg as a “political appointee.”
“It's a recipe for disaster,” Altschiller, who sits on the Executive Departments and Administration Committee, said. Sanchez “was actually doing her job, but when you don’t want people to see the ugly underside of a mess you have made, you get rid of the person with the flashlight.”
Aldenberg did not respond to requests for comment.
N.H. State Senator David Watters ’72, D-Dover, a member of the Finance and Capital Budget Committees, said that he and N.H. State Senator Cindy Rosenwald, D-Nashua, “fought tooth and nail” against budget cuts to OCA.
“I think the cuts were made for very political reasons because the [former] child advocate called out bullying of LGBTQ children,” Watters said. “What I fear is that it’s now become so politicized, that anybody in that position will be afraid to do their job. We need independent and responsible eyes who can take care of our children and inform the public.”
N.H. House Rep. Mary Hakken-Phillips, D-Grafton, a member of the Finance Committee, said restoring funding for the OCA will be a “huge priority” for her in the next budget cycle, which begins on July 1, 2027.
“OCA makes sure kids can thrive in safe, stable environments,” she said. “We must ensure that they have the resources they need to prevent ongoing abuses at the SYSC.”
OCA was not the only target of budget cuts. According to the OCCS report, lawmakers also cut funding to the DCYF, which led to staff cuts at SYSC, which was short 14 youth counselors as of June, according to the OCCS report. Liot Hill said that DHHS has since received approval for “temporary staffing contracts” for 10 new youth counselors, but the search for permanent staff is still underway.
Altschiller said that the legislature’s actions created an “environment for the abuse we’re seeing now.”
“They took away resources from survivors of abuse, and then when abuse happens, they clutch their pearls and wring their hands and come up with the idea that we need more training,” she said.
Throughout the spring 2026 legislative session, lawmakers debated a bill which would allocate the proceeds from the sale of the facility’s old building to either a settlement fund the state created in 2022 to pay SYSC abuse victims or to the state’s general fund, which is used to finance a variety of government operations and services. Ayotte vetoed the bill, the final version of which would have placed the money in a general fund if the sale was finalized by June 2027 or the settlement fund if it was not. Legislators will meet on Aug. 19 to vote to override the veto.
“The GOP majority’s efforts over the past term have basically been to financially drain the mechanisms to pay for the state’s liabilities as a result of the Sununu Center, as well as actively defund the office responsible for oversight and prevention of similar abuses,” Hakken-Phillips said.
Altschiller — who co-sponsored the original version of the bill, in which the proceeds from the sale would have been directed to the separate fund — said her intention was to direct funds away from the general fund that “will no doubt be used for yet another corporate tax cut.”
“The state would rather gamble on court cases and deliberately put survivors of physical and sexual abuse through the trauma of a court case, than continue with the fund that was set up to address these cases quickly and efficiently, in a trauma-informed way,” she said.
Rosenwald, who also sponsored the bill in its original form, said that she was “pleased” by the governor’s decision to veto the final version.
“In the general fund, the settlements would have to compete with funding to the university system, Medicaid, state police and more,” she said. “I firmly believe that the state is much better off settling these cases [related to SYSC] rather than seeing them go to jury trials.”
Watters, another sponsor of the bill, expressed similar concerns, stating that while lawmakers predicted the settlements could cost up to $750 million in total, the state might have to spend more than $1 billion “if we don’t get the claims going.”
Pearson, who voted in favor of the version of the bill which directed proceeds to the general fund, described the “battle” in the legislature as a conflict between “tax and spend” people at one extreme, who “throw money around without carefully thinking it through,” and “the free state movement” at the other, who want to “abolish the DHHS and cut the state budget in half.”
“Even if we receive huge sums of money from the sale of the Manchester center, that won’t be enough,” he said. “It will have to come out of the general budget, and what does that mean for working-class folks who live from paycheck to paycheck? If we continue to give large settlements without checking whether a crime has truly been committed, we are going to be harming a lot of other people.”
Pearson added that he thinks “reasonable” people in the legislature across both parties are seeking to find a better solution.
“I’m hopeful as the new budget process starts, there will be money devoted to looking after our youngsters in need,” he said.
Rosenwald, a member of the Finance Committee, also noted “bipartisan displeasure” at how money is being spent on issues regarding SYSC and victims of past abuse.
“We have to implement the therapeutic model and get these kids ready to go back into their communities,” she said. “That’s not an easy task, but we’re throwing so much money at this place, and it’s not working.
Goodlander calls for federal investigation
On Aug. 4, U.S. Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander, D-N.H., called for a federal investigation into conditions at the detention center. In a letter to the U.S. attorney for the District of New Hampshire and the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, Goodlander requested a review of the Sununu Center to determine whether a “pattern of restraint, seclusion and medical neglect” has violated constitutional rights of youth in state custody.
The letter references a July 17 incident in which a 13-year-old was hospitalized for a broken femur resulting from an assault by another resident, at a time when only one staff member was present.
Hakken-Phillips said she agreed with Goodlander’s request for a federal investigation into the facility.
“This is obviously a matter that the state has not adequately responded to,” she said.
Altschiller said she “cannot wait” for a federal investigation to be underway.
“It is abundantly clear that the majority party in New Hampshire does not want to help these kids grow and process the trauma they've been through,” she said.
Pearson, in contrast, accused Goodlander of “grandstanding” in hopes of being reelected. Goodlander is projected to win reelection for her second term this November.
Goodlander “just wanted headlines in the newspaper,” he said. “We’re already dealing with this. Where has she been for the last three or four years as these things have been going on? Crickets. I don't have a lot of respect for my fellow politicians when they do things like that.”
Watters said that he appreciates Goodlander “stepping up.”
“I love the state, but it has become clear that it is not able to protect these children,” he said. “Whether or not the federal government will exercise any responsibility is another question.”
Looking ahead
At a July 29 Executive Council meeting, DCYF director Marie Noonan shared an “implementation matrix” that tracks progress in recommended reforms to SYSC.
The document, which was obtained and reviewed by The Dartmouth, details ongoing efforts at reform, including training staff in trauma-informed care and de-escalation, making educational services more consistent, a permanent increase in staffing and prohibition of collective punishment and increased communication between DHHS and OCA.
The document also says the construction of the new facility in Hampstead is 90% complete, in line with plans to begin relocation in January 2027. According to Rosenwald, the legislature has already spent $40 million on construction and furnishing.
Liot Hill said that at their last meeting, the Executive Council approved a $269,000 contract for specially designed furniture for the facility. In addition, the new facility will benefit from security-enhancing technology and will be designed to provide youth with better access to outdoor activities and educational services.
She expressed hope for the new, smaller center, which is “designed specifically to address security concerns and provide trauma-informed treatments,” to provide a better environment to residents.
