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New bill causing concern over group home safety

The director of a group home for neglected and abused teens in New Hampshire says a new law will endanger those kids and his staff.

The legislation is moving teens convicted of criminal offenses from detention centers to non-secure group homes. Community advocates are begging state leaders for help.

For more than three decades, Lou Catano has overseen hundreds of teens at Manchester's Webster House, a non-profit group home for children from backgrounds of abuse and neglect.

"We really run it as one big family, 19 children, it's a big family," said Catano.

It's meant to be a safe space, but Catano says a new law threatens that sense of security.

"I just think it's a bad bill for kids. It's a dangerous bill," said Catano.

House Bill 517 sets news criteria for teens held at the Sununu Youth Services Center by allowing some of them to transfer to non-secure group homes like the Webster House.

"I would always love to see less kids in a detention center, but this is not the right bill, this is not the right time," said Catano.

Supporters of the bill say it's a major cost savings to the state. It costs the state about $500 per day to keep a teen at The Sununu Youth Services Center, and only about $60 to keep them at the Webster house.

"The real cost to the community, I think, is gonna be even greater than the $499," said Catano.

Catano worries the youth offenders pose a danger to his staff and place a burden upon the other teens already living there.

"They do need to be up there, there's an unfortunate percentage of the population where children do need secure treatment," said Catano.

In a statement, a DHHS spokesman told Boston 25 News:

"The Department raised concerns about the impact on New Hampshire’s youth residential programs when the Legislature was considering changes to the state’s commitment and detention laws last session. Now that those changes have been enacted, the Department’s responsibility is to work with the Governor and the legislature in implementing those changes, including as they may impact providers of residential services. The law also authorized an independent analysis of community needs of the youth services system in New Hampshire, and we anticipate that this analysis will help inform legislators, the Department, community program providers and juvenile justice advocates on these community based needs."

DHHS is now asking for an independent analysis of the law, and so is Catano, who hopes legislators are listening to his cry for help.

"You don't close hospital beds to get the community healthier, and you don't close secure treatment beds in order to get kids safer," said Catano.