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Progress In Women's Prison Construction: Now There's a Parking Lot

Emily Corwin/NHPR
It's been more than 25 years since the courts ordered New Hampshire to build a new facility for female prisoners.

Credit State of New Hampshire, Department of Corrections

It’s been 27 years since New Hampshire courts first ordered a new state prison for women, and more than three years since lawmakers approved funding for the new facility.

Today, the project took another step forward: The Department of Corrections says the facility’s access roads and parking lot are completed.

According to an update released by the Department on Friday, the foundation is also underway.

Lawmakers approved $38 million for the facility in 2013, after a class action lawsuit alleged the state was not complying with a previous court order to offer equal programs to women and men in the state’s custody.

Jeff Lyons, the Department’s public information officer, says the new women’s prison is slated to open September, 2017: almost a year after the department first planned to open it.  

Credit New Hampshire Department of Corrections

  

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