William Hart will serve as the next commissioner for New Hampshire’s Department of Corrections, leading a prison system that incarcerates roughly 1,700 people and employs 1,000.
The Executive Council confirmed Hart, currently the U.S. Marshal for the District of New Hampshire, with a 4-1 vote on Wednesday.
Executive Councilor Karen Liot Hill said she’s confident Hart is the right person to lead the department.
“Leadership at the Department of Corrections is incredibly important for our state,” she said. “Marshal Hart brings extensive law enforcement and community leadership experience… He is well-respected and admired by his colleagues.”
Hart has no experience in corrections but boasts a long career in law enforcement, having worked as chief of police in Londonderry for more than a decade. He’s also served on the state’s Police Standards and Training Council and the New Hampshire Retirement System Board of Trustees. He’s a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and a former Rockingham County Attorney.
Gov. Kelly Ayotte, who announced she would nominate Hart to serve as commissioner on Aug. 12, said she believes he’ll lead the correctional system with “steadiness and transparency.”
“Bill Hart has spent his entire career protecting the people of New Hampshire with integrity, discipline and fairness,” she said in a statement. “I am confident that under his leadership, the Department of Corrections will strengthen its mission of public safety, rehabilitation and accountability.”
Executive Councilor Janet Stevens, a Republican from Rye, voted against Hart’s confirmation without further explanation at the meeting. She did not immediately respond to an interview request from the Monitor.
The commissioner position has been up for grabs since former commissioner Helen Hanks resigned abruptly in May amid a swirl of tumultuous circumstances, including disagreements with Ayotte and the legislature, as well as questions over her procurement practices and handling of evidence in the investigation of a former corrections officer.
John Scippa, director of the New Hampshire Police Standards Training Council, has led the prison system since Hanks’s departure.
Executive Councilor John Stephen commended Scippa for his interim leadership and alluded to his help solving “accountability issues” within the Department of Corrections.
Scippa will now return to his role as director of the Police Standards Training Council.