A plan to transform the old Merrimack County jail into a community corrections center is moving forward.
Corrections Superintendent Ross Cunningham told county delegates on Tuesday that Warrenstreet Architects has been hired to evaluate the building, and that mold and some asbestos have been removed. A sketch of a possible renovation plan was distributed Tuesday.
“The good thing about the Edna McKenna building is the bones are strong,” Cunningham said. “The reality inside of it is, a lot of the structural pieces inside, there’s no load-bearing walls, so . . . we can do a lot of demolition inside the building and build it out the way we’d like.”
The proposal includes a unit for a 60-day inpatient drug treatment program and up to a year of aftercare in the community. Inmates would be separated by gender – 34 men, 36 women – though some programming would be mixed. The facility would also house inmates on work release.
The treatment component has already been phased in at the existing jail, and Cunningham said the aftercare portion will be introduced in coming weeks. It replaces the jail’s previous diversion program, called SOAR.
Under the preliminary sketch from Warrenstreet, the renovated facility would divide men and women by floor, with classrooms and a visitation room concentrated along a center corridor. The jail has yet to assign a price tag for the construction work, but expects to as early as next month. It will need seven new employees to run the facility, at a cost of about $490,000 per year.
While the idea has gained support from the county commission, Cunningham still has to persuade the larger delegation to sign off on any final expenditures. He told delegates on Tuesday that programs like this are in critical need as the state searches for new tools to combat opioid addiction.
Cunningham arrived in Merrimack County in 2014 from Sullivan County and has been at the forefront of the effort to revive the old county jail.
“We’re in a very exciting spot,” Cunningham said when he took over as Department of Corrections superintendent for Ron White earlier this year. “I’m excited for this opportunity. I’m excited to work with such a great staff here.”
Cunningham was behind a similar renovation project in Sullivan County, where he became superintendent in 2007. Before that, he was a major in the state Department of Corrections. He has worked in corrections and law enforcement for more than 26 years.
(Jeremy Blackman can be reached at 369-3319, jblackman@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @JBlackmanCM.)