Disability Rights Center Reports Abuse at Sununu Youth Center

The Disability Rights Center-NH has reported new evidence of potential abuse at the Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester, including a policy that advocates say instructs staff to use illegal restraints on children held at the state’s juvenile detention facility.

In a letter addressed to Gov. Kelly Ayotte and Health and Human Services Commissioner Lori Weaver, the Disability Rights Center said facility staff have implemented a policy directing them to physically guide children by hand around the building. If a child refuses, staff are reportedly told to escalate to more severe methods, including prone restraints, which involve forcing a person to the ground face-down and can suffocate or kill a child if applied aggressively, according to child welfare experts.

The center didn’t mince words about what the policy appears designed to do.

“It appears to be a purposeful effort to agitate the child through unnecessary and unwanted physical contact,” the letter reads, according to New Hampshire Bulletin. “This contact, in turn, leads to a predictable escalation of a previously nonemergent situation to justify restraining the child.”

New Hampshire state law bars restraints from being used “explicitly or implicitly as punishment for the behavior of a child” in state facilities. Staff may use restraints only “to ensure the immediate physical safety of persons when there is a substantial and imminent risk of serious bodily harm to the child or others,” the law says. The Disability Rights Center also argues that physically guiding children who have no freedom of movement already qualifies as a restraint under state law, meaning the hand-guiding step itself may violate statute before any escalation occurs.

The findings arrive weeks after the New Hampshire Office of the Child Advocate released its own report on the facility, documenting separate abuses. That report described children forced into overly restrictive lockdowns without adequate access to education or the outdoors. It also referenced security camera footage showing a staff member breaking a child’s bone during an illegal restraint. The two investigations ran independently, and their conclusions reinforce each other on the core question: children at Sununu are being harmed.

Serious. And apparently ongoing.

The Disability Rights Center said its investigation continues. Staff plan to make additional visits to the facility and examine facility records, the organization said in the letter. No timeline was given for when a full report would be released.

The Sununu Youth Services Center, formerly called the Youth Detention Center, has faced a long stream of abuse allegations. The facility houses children who are in trouble with the law and are in state custody, a population that is both legally vulnerable and, in practice, largely without public advocates watching on their behalf. The center’s history includes prior lawsuits and documented incidents that span years, giving this latest round of findings a weight that goes beyond any single policy or incident.

The Disability Rights Center-NH, which holds federal authority to investigate abuse and neglect of people with disabilities in state facilities, has legal access to records and residents that outside journalists and advocates do not. That access shapes what the organization can find, and the findings here are specific: a written policy, a documented escalation structure, and a letter that names the governor and the state’s top health official directly.

Ayotte took office in January 2025 after campaigning in part on fiscal responsibility and public safety. Her administration inherited the Sununu facility and its problems. How her office and Commissioner Weaver respond to the letter, which puts two senior officials formally on notice about conditions inside a state-run facility for children, will determine whether the documented concerns produce any policy change before more children are hurt. The Disability Rights Center has not said whether it plans to pursue legal action if the state doesn’t respond.