The Detention Center
Sullivan County Department of Corrections
- Operated bySullivan County Department of Corrections
- Who runs itShawn Coughlan — Superintendent, Sullivan County Department of Corrections, appointed by the Board of County Commissioners (RSA 30-B:3)
- Jail address103 County Farm Road, Unity, NH 03743 (mailing address given as Claremont, NH 03743)
- CommandSupt. Shawn Coughlan; Capt. Joshua Esty; Lt. Wally Ultsch
- Designed capacity168 beds (PREA final audit report posted by the county, auditor Jeff Rogers, report dated 31 October 2016; population that day 72)
- Daily populationApproximately 100 inmates a day (county FY2024 annual report)
- StructureThe FY2024 annual report describes 'essentially two facilities within one': the county jail (pre-trial and sentenced, minimum to maximum) and the 72-bed Community Corrections Center running the TRAILS re-entry programme, launched 2010
- StaffingOver 40 full-time employees
- VisitationAt-home video visits only, through Securus
- MailFrom 12 January 2026 all personal mail goes to a Securus Digital Mail Center in Tampa, Florida and is scanned to tablets; physical mail destroyed after 60 days
- Year built / costNot found — checked the Department of Corrections pages, the FY2024 annual report and the county's annual report and budget archives
Source: Sullivan County — Department of Corrections · checked 2026-08-23
Transparency rating
5/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✓What it costs taxpayers
- ✗Deaths in custody — not published
- ✓PREA audits
- ✗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
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year builtNot found
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds168 designed capacity (2016 PREA final audit report); the Community Corrections Center within it is a 72-bed unit
Since then
- Community Corrections Center opened for the TRAILS programme in 2010; no cost figure published
The Sheriff
Sheriff Jayson S. Almstrom
- Runs the jailNo — the Superintendent of the Sullivan County Department of Corrections does
- Title usedHigh Sheriff
- RoleService of civil process, court security at Sullivan County Superior Court, prisoner transport and support of local law enforcement
- Chief DeputyJames E. Yazinski
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Sullivan County Sheriff's Office · 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 consent of the Executive Council, and 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. The county pays for and maintains courthouse space but does not choose the judges. The Judicial Branch publishes a clerk for each court location and does not publish a sitting-judge roster per county, so no presiding judge is named here. Appointment method source: https://www.courts.nh.gov/our-courts/superior-court
NH Circuit Court — 5th Circuit, Claremont (1 Police Court, Suite 2, Claremont) and Newport (55 Main Street, Newport)
- Not published per county — the Judicial Branch lists Circuit Clerk Robin J. Lockhart for both locations and no judge
Sullivan Superior Court (22 Main Street, Newport)
- Not published — the Judicial Branch page lists Clerk Brendon C. Thurston and no judge
- 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
- County seat: Sullivan is the only county in this group whose own publication states its seat. The FY2024 annual report (file 'Annual Report FY24 -Final amended 9-29-25 adding Financal report.pdf' in the county's Annual Reports folder, linked from https://sullivancountynh.gov/129/Agendas-Minutes) says 'The Commissioner's Office is located on Main Street in Newport, the County seat.' The county's administrative complex, the nursing home and the jail are in Unity.
- Fees: Sullivan is the only county in this group that publishes an actual rate schedule. The Rates for Collect Calls page gives local and IntraLATA calls at a $1.31 surcharge plus $0.21 day / $0.15 evening / $0.10 night-weekend per minute, interstate at a $3.95 surcharge plus $0.89 per minute, Advance Connect/Debit in-state at $1.25 plus $0.17/$0.12/$0.08, interstate debit at $3.50 plus $0.50, and international at $2.25 plus $0.75. The commissary page publishes deposit processing fees of $2.50 on transactions under $50 and 10% on transactions over $50, but no commissary item prices.
- PREA and capacity: the Department of Corrections page links a SharePoint folder (cited as the check URL) holding 'PREA Final Audit Report 10-31-16.pdf' (auditor Jeff Rogers, U.S. Department of Justice certified auditor), a PREA Update dated 30 September 2016 and the department's PREA policy. The audit report gives a designed facility capacity of 168 and a facility population of 72 on the day of the audit. Nothing more recent than 2016 is posted.
- Budget: the Budgets, Minutes & Annual Reports page at https://sullivancountynh.gov/129/Agendas-Minutes links the SharePoint folder 'Budget Taxes & Audit' with subfolders for FY2001 through FY2027. The file 'FY27 EFC SUMMARY PROPOSED EXPENSE $44,519,738.pdf' in the FY 2027 subfolder lists account 10.600.00000 DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION at $5,899,152 (FY26 budget $5,702,503; FY25 $5,481,057) and account 10.601.00000 SULLIVAN HOUSE at $204,559.
- Annual reports: the same page links an Annual Reports folder running from the 1870s to FY2024. The FY2024 report is the source for the jail's daily population and structure.
- Roster and bail: no inmate roster (custody status is routed to VINELink) and no guidance on how to post bail.
- The Sullivan County district-division page at courts.nh.gov returned HTTP 403 on repeated attempts, so the 5th Circuit Claremont and Newport locations are cited from the Judicial Branch's Sullivan County family divisions page instead.
- New Hampshire has no state agency that inspects county jails and publishes the results the way the Maine Department of Corrections does. The only independent inspection of a New Hampshire county jail that is routinely published is the federal PREA audit, when the county chooses to post it.
- Three county commissioners elected under RSA 28 — Joe Osgood (Chair), George Hebert (Vice Chair) and Bennie C. Nelson (Clerk); two are elected every two years and the third every four. They supervise the Department of Corrections and exercise budgetary oversight, but the money is voted by the Sullivan County Delegation — the 13 state representatives elected from Sullivan County, chaired by Rep. Steven Smith — under RSA 24. Commissioners meet twice a month, once at the County & State Court Complex, 14 Main Street, Newport and once at the county complex at 5 Nursing Home Drive, Unity. The FY2027 proposed budget puts the Department of Correction (account 10.600.00000) at $5,899,152, against $5,702,503 budgeted in FY2026 and $5,481,057 in FY2025.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Sullivan 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.
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