New Hampshire mayors and Manchester BMA add another call for bail reform

MANCHESTER, N.H. – In recent years, reforming guidelines for personal recognizance bail has been one of the most discussed topics in state politics and Aldermen from Manchester joined a group of eight New Hampshire mayors urging the legislature to remain focused on the issue.

Both city aldermen and the mayors sent letter to New Hampshire House of Representatives Speaker Sherman Packard (R-Londonderry) and New Hampshire Senate President Sharon Carson (R-Londonderry) in the hopes that legislators can find compromise to move forward.

Former New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu signed a bill related to the topic last year, one of several bills seeking to find a balance between original reforms that helped indigent Granite Staters who were unduly penalized by overzealous bail requirements and the impact of those reforms that would often allow individuals leave police custody almost immediately after arrest despite multiple previous arrests or some violent crimes.

Current New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte has requested the passage of HB 592, a new piece of legislation related to further bail reform. In Manchester, the topic has particularly hit home following the story of a man released on personal recognizance bail after a serious alleged crime just a few hundred feet away from Manchester Mayor Jay Ruais’ office.

“This is not a partisan issue, it’s a safety issue, and the safety of our cities is non-negotiable. Last year, in Manchester alone, 27-percent of individuals arrested were out on bail at the time of their arrest. We need to focus on making sure violent and repeat offenders are taken off our streets,” he said.

Ruais was also one of the eight mayors submitting the joint statement, along with Paul Callaghan (Rochester), Dale Girard (Claremont), Jay Kahn (Keene), Desiree McLaughlin (Franklin), Robert Cone (Berlin), Byron Champlin (Concord) and Robert Carrier (Dover).

Every one of the Aldermen signed onto the joint letter from that board. In their letter, they referenced the aforementioned crime on Elm Street. The Aldermen also noted that in 2024, there were 2,971 adults arrested in Manchester for 4,551 arrests. A total of 27 percent of the 2,971 individuals were arrested more than once and 24 percent were already out on bail for an earlier crime when they were arrested for a new crime.

“When individuals are not held accountable for their actions, it encourages bad behavior,” stated the board in their letter. “Public safety is in everyone’s interest. It affects our citizens, businesses and visitors, as well as our men and women in law enforcement. When they do the hard work and arrest someone and that person is then let out on the streets to reoffend, what message does that send to our officers patrolling our streets? What message does this send to the victims? We owe them the tools they need to keep all of us safe.”

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire(ACLU-NH) called out Ayotte for her statements regarding the state’s bail laws, stating laws put in place in 2018 loosening bail requirements has saved taxpayers money while seeing drastically lower crime rates every year for the six years following its implementation.

In a release from the ACLU-NH on Monday, they noted situations before 2018 when one Black Granite Stater who could not afford cash bail died in a New Hampshire jail for a low level marijuana possession charge, and earlier the same man had spent 33 days in jail for not being able to afford a $100 bail for walking through a public park.

“Police are not a judge and jury, and they should not have the power to take away someone’s freedom. That power is left to a judge’s discretion. 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,” said Amanda Azad, policy director at the ACLU of New Hampshire. “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.”