Belknap County, New Hampshire — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

Belknap County Department of Corrections

Operated byBelknap County Department of Corrections
Who runs itMichelle Wetherbee — Superintendent, Belknap County Department of Corrections, appointed by the Board of County Commissioners (RSA 30-B:3)
Jail address76 County Dr, Laconia, NH 03246
Deputy SuperintendentBenjamin Dow (2025 Annual Report)
HistoryA county jail has stood on the county complex since the 1860s; the oldest existing portion was built in 1890 and is now an indoor recreation area
Additions1970s, 1980s, and 2017 (Community Corrections Center)
Structural study2025 study by SMRT Architects and Engineers found significant deficiencies in the structure; the study itself is not posted
2025 bookings1,103 bookings; 677 awaiting trial; 74 sentenced; 314 protective custody
Bed countNot found — no capacity figure is published by the county

Source: Belknap County 2025 Annual Report (PDF) · checked 2026-08-23

Transparency rating

3/10Closed

✓The jail is named
✗Who is in custody — not published
✗Beds and daily population — not published
✓What it costs taxpayers
✗Deaths in custody — not published
✗PREA audits — not published
✗Independent inspection — not published
✗Who else it holds, and for how much — not published
✗How to post bond — not published
✓Phone, video and commissary rates

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Belknap County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-08-23. Nothing here says the jail is run well or badly. Every mark moves the moment the county posts the document.

The Building

You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.

Year built1890 for the oldest surviving portion; jail on the site since the 1860s
Original costNot found
Paid for byNot found
BedsNot found

Since then

Additions in the 1970s
Additions in the 1980s
2017 Community Corrections Center

The Sheriff

Sheriff William Wright

Runs the jailNo — the Superintendent of the Belknap County Department of Corrections does
RoleLaw enforcement, civil process and court security; office at 42 County Dr, Laconia
Listed in county annual reportSheriff William Wright, 42 County Drive, Laconia NH 03246

Still needed

Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail

Source: Belknap County — Sheriff · checked 2026-08-23

The Judges

Judges in New Hampshire are state judicial officers, not county officials. They are nominated by the Governor and appointed with the approval of a majority of the Executive Council, and hold office until age 70 — they are never elected. New Hampshire has a unified state trial court: the Superior Court and the Circuit Court (district, family and probate divisions) are state courts, and the county pays for and maintains the courthouse but does not choose the judges. The Judicial Branch publishes clerks and deputy clerks for each location but does not publish a judge roster per county, so no presiding judge is named here. Source for the appointment method: https://www.courts.nh.gov/our-courts/superior-court

NH Circuit Court — 4th Circuit, District Division — Laconia (26 Academy Street, Laconia)

Not published per county — the Judicial Branch lists Circuit Clerk Lisa Lamper and Deputy Clerk Margaret Fazzina, no judge

Belknap Superior Court (64 Court Street, Laconia)

Not published — the Judicial Branch page lists Clerk Abigail Albee and no judge

Still needed

The county's bond schedule
Share of the jail population held pretrial
Median time from booking to first appearance

Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-08-23

The County Commissioners

They pay for the jail. The sheriff runs it.

What they controlThe detention budget, the building itself, and the agreements that let other agencies rent its beds.
What they don'tDay-to-day operations. The sheriff is separately elected and answers to voters, not to the board.
The boardBoard of County Commissioners →
Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →

Notes on the record

Capacity marked no: the 2025 Annual Report publishes booking counts and an average-length-of-stay figure but no bed count, so beds and daily population are not both published.
Budget marked yes on the strength of the 2025 Annual Report, which reproduces Budget Review Committee minutes recording the Department of Corrections bottom line at $6,390,039. The county's separate budget documents (2025 MS-42, Commissioners' budget recommendations) are posted only as scanned images with no extractable text.
Fees marked yes on the Inmate Handbook, which publishes a fee schedule: video visit $5.99 per 20 minutes and $29.99 monthly, e-mail $0.52 per message, photocopies $0.10 per page, haircut $6.00, prescription $0.50 per day. Per-minute telephone rates are NOT published. The Video Visiting page (https://www.belknapcounty.gov/260/Video-Visiting-Rules-Hours) separately states $5 per remote session and free on-site kiosk visits — a figure that does not match the handbook.
Roster marked no: the Corrections FAQ page refers to a 'Public Access Inmate Search' in the left menu, but no such link exists anywhere on the site and a site search for 'inmate search' returns none.
PREA marked no: a site search for PREA returns only the Volunteer Handbook, Inmate Handbook and a 2023 commissioners' agenda. No audit report is posted.
New Hampshire has no state agency that inspects county jails and publishes the results the way the Maine Department of Corrections does under 34-A M.R.S. sections 1208 and 1402(13). No state or county inspection report was found for this facility.
Three county commissioners elected by district under RSA 28 (Peter Spanos D1, Glen Waring D2, Stephen Hodges D3). The commissioners prepare the budget, but the county budget is voted by the Belknap County Delegation — the county's 18 state representatives — through its Executive and Budget Review Committees. In 2025 the Budget Review Committee set the Department of Corrections bottom line at $6,390,039.

These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Belknap County and what it costs the people who live here. Nationally, almost 77% of the people who died in local jails in 2019 had not been convicted of anything, and suicide was the leading single cause of those deaths (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Mortality in Local Jails, 2000–2019).

How much is your sheriff — and your judge — costing you?

Your VOTE is POWERFUL.

The sheriff who runs this jail is elected. So are the commissioners who pay for it.

These offices are on your ballot

In New Hampshire your town or city clerk runs the checklist and the polling place. Links from vote.gov and USA.gov.

Names verified 2026-08-23 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered