Ayotte, backed by law enforcement and elected officials, pushes for passage of bail reform bill

CONCORD, NH – New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Atyotte held a press conference Wednesday surrounded by state and local police, legislators, county attorneys and mayors from across the state to rally support for a pending bail reform bill.

Three months after the 2024 Bail Reform bill took effect, the Governor and NH Republicans are seeking to roll back many provisions of the law. House Bill 592, sponsored by Republican State Representative Ross Berry from Weare, will be voted on Thursday.

“We owe it to the people of New Hampshire to get this right this time and to not have to revisit this issue yet again because we have another tragic victim who finds himself a victim from someone who is a repeat offender or committed a serious crime that got PR-bailed right out the door. So, I would urge the House, please take this up, please pass it. I thank House leadership again for your hard work in getting behind this effort,” said Governor Ayotte.

Rep. Berry described the murder of a constituent by a person who was out on “double PR bail” (personal recognizance) as motivating his desire to change the current bail system.

“This law has had real world consequences for the people of New Hampshire. They always try to dismiss things as anecdotal evidence, but the anecdotal evidence has piled so high at this point it’s no longer anecdotal,” Berry said.

The goal is to close what are considered loopholes in the current system and prevent violent and repeat offenders from being allowed back on the street.

Changes proposed are ending the “three strikes”  rule for repeat offenders and bail violators to be held. Another change is to increase the holding period from 24 to 36 hours to allow courts to hold and prosecutors to prepare for more time for bail determination hearings.

The bill would repeal the magistrate system that began in January 2025 and add a requirement that bail be determined by a judge in a circuit or superior court.  Ayotte noted her objection to the magistrates saying, “There are more legal issues, potential issues being created by the magistrates than solved. They’re not judicial officers. In other words, they don’t have the same authority as a judge.”

Manchester Mayor Jay Ruais spoke of his support for the legislation, saying,” This is not a partisan issue. This is a public safety issue, and the safety of our municipalities is absolutely non-negotiable.”

He also described the statewide support of other mayors.

“On Monday, I released a letter out of my office from eight mayors from across the state of New Hampshire, two of whom are with us today, Mayor Gerard of Claremont and Mayor Laughlin of Franklin. And the other mayors that were on that list, Mayor Robert Cohn of Berlin, Mayor Byron Champlin of Concord, Mayor Paul Callahan of Rochester, Mayor Bob Carrier of Dover, Mayor Jay Khan of Keene, and I spoke with Mayor McEachern of Portsmouth yesterday, who also wanted to add his name to this list.”

Ruais also offered the following data in support of his position:

“In Manchester in 2024, our police department conducted 4,584 arrests; 37% of them were released on bail; 27% of all arrests conducted in the city of Manchester, those individuals were out on bail at the time of their arrests,” said Ruais.

Critics of the law claim it will be likely for more people to be held in pre-trial incarceration. Amanda Azad, policy director at the ACLU of New Hampshire, released this statement outlining their objections.

“From the perspective of freedom, justice, and due process, we are extremely alarmed by Governor Ayotte’s inaccurate and misleading statements on bail reform and her expressed desire to take away the freedom of thousands of Granite Staters who are presumed innocent in the eyes of the law. Governor Ayotte is disregarding years of state data that shows a clear and remarkable decrease in crime and is instead pushing fearful anecdotes to make anti-civil liberty changes to our bail laws. Our current laws ensure that poorer people, wealthier people, and everyone in between is treated the same – but the Governor wants to change that.”

The Governor defended the changes, saying,”We’re protecting the rights of the accused in this bill as well, but we cannot, you know, forego the rights of the victims and the rights of the public to make sure that they can be safe in this state and that the police aren’t seeing the same perpetrators over and over again. So, this bill, House Bill 592, [on Thursday] the House of Representatives has an opportunity to right this wrong and really come out with a stronger law and a better law that will not only protect the public, but it will be fair and appropriate and protect the constitutional rights of those who are charged in the arrest.”

The bill is scheduled to go to the House floor on March 13.