State officials tabled a critical staffing contract for the state-run youth detention facility Wednesday over questions about employee background checks. If the contract is not approved within two weeks, the Sununu Youth Services Center will lose 18 temporary youth counselors who have kept the center afloat during a years-long staffing crisis.
The contract, first approved by the Executive Council in 2021, ran into trouble at the council meeting Wednesday when two councilors questioned whether an employee listed on the state’s sex offender registry had been employed at the Sununu Youth Services Center.
Councilors John Stephen and Janet Stevens said they had been told that an individual on the sex offender registry had used an alias to get a job with the department. Stephen said he’d been given that information by a juvenile probation and parole officer who works at the youth center.
Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Lori Weaver and Melissa St. Cry, the department’s chief legal officer, told councilors the information was inaccurate. St. Cyr said the person who worked for the department is not the same person on the sex offender registry.
That was not enough reassurance for the majority of the council. Stephen, Stevens, and Councilors David Wheeler and Joe Kenney voted to table the contract. Councilor Karen Liot Hill raised concerns about the training provided to youth counselors but voted to approve the contract.
Stephen provided NHPR the two names following the meeting. One of the individuals appears on the sex offender registry. His listed aliases do not include the name of the individual hired by the department, and that individual is not on the registry.
Later on Wednesday evening, the department issued a statement reasserting the findings of its investigation.
“The Department confirmed that the two names identified today are two different people,” spokesperson Jake Leon said in an email. “The individual who we heard about today that was a registered sex offender and was convicted of felonious sexual assault is not the same person that worked at state facilities.”
A legislative investigation found in May that long-standing staff shortages at the Sununu Youth Services Center contributed to recent abuse allegations of illegal restraints and unrest inside the facility that included staff and youth injuries, and a call to the state police.
The department said it has 45 youth counselor positions in addition to the 18 temporary positions. Currently, four positions are vacant, and 12 counselors are out or on limited duties due to workers’ compensation claims, Weaver said.
She said the department is already requiring counselors to work overtime to mitigate the shortage, and the shortage will become more dire without the 18 temporary workers.
“So will this contract getting tabled impact the facility?” Weaver said. “100%. 100%.”
