Manchester, Concord Mayors, Others Call On The Legislature To Reform Bail Laws

MANCHESTER, NH — Eight mayors and 14 aldermen of New Hampshire’s largest city are calling on the House and Senate to reform bail laws in the current legislative session.

The request was sent in a letter to the President of the Senate, Sharon Carson, R-Londonderry, and Speaker of the House, Sherm Packard, R-Londonderry, last week. It was signed by eight mayors: Manchester Mayor Jay Ruais, Concord Mayor Byron Champlin, Dale Girard, the mayor of Claremont, Mayor Jay Kahn of Keene, Mayor Desiree McLaughlin, Paul Callaghan, the mayor of Rochester, Robert Carrier, the mayor of Dover, and Mayor Robert Cone of Berlin. The mayors said while they were “grateful” for their previous work on the matter and “fully appreciate” the problematic nature of the legislative process, “as recent violent incidents illustrate, this issue is crying out for further action this session.” The mayors said they also had vacancies in their police departments, making “an already trying job more difficult,” which was compounded “when criminal cycle through a process of arrest and release, only to be arrested again.”

The mayors said they considered public safety in New Hampshire “non-negotiable” and urged reform in the current legislative session.

“This is not a partisan issue,” Ruais said, “it’s a safety issue, and the safety of our cities is non-negotiable. We need to focus on making sure violent and repeat offenders are taken off our streets.”

Ruais called on representatives and senators “to do the right thing,” which will make the state safer. He also thanked Gov. Kelly Ayotte “for her continued support on this issue.”

The most recent letter comes three weeks after Ruais and the board of alderman of Manchester signed a letter to senators and representatives calling for bail reform. While the previous reforms were accomplished with “good intentions,” those have been followed by “criminal acts,” backed up by violent crime data from the state’s largest city. Last year, 2,971 adults were arrested in the Queen City, accounting for 4,551 arrests because 27 percent were charged more than once. Of the nearly 3,000 people arrested, 715, or 24 percent, were out on bail at the time of the second arrest.

“When individuals are not held accountable for their actions,” the letter said, “it encourages more bad behavior.”

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