Homeless at The P.K. Motel
It’s nearly impossible to say how many homeless people there are in New Hampshire. And the biggest reason is that most people without a home in this state aren’t on the street or in shelters—they actually have a roof over their heads.
The PK Motel rises up over a big, dusty parking lot, part way down a rural road in Effingham, close to the Maine Border and wedged between the lakes and the White Mountains. The place looks more like a warehouse than a motel. It's not a place families stop on vacation. It's where local town welfare offices send people when they're out of options. And behind each of these doors are stories of people stranded by poverty - stories about addiction, violence, rural isolation, bad luck, and bad choices.
This story is part three in a special series on homelessness in New Hampshire:
http://www.nhprdigital.org/series-homeless-in-nh#special-series-homeless-in-nh
Are New Hampshire Cities Asking Homeless People to Disappear?
Drive the highway between Manchester and Concord, and maybe you’ll catch a glimpse of the tarps and tents lining sections of the Merrimack River and the train tracks. When winter shelters close, homeless people find refuge outdoors, in public—but that’s an act that’s often against the law.
Some cities in New Hampshire have backed away from rules against camping or panhandling, while others still choose to enforce them. And through these layers of conflicting policy, it’s unclear for homeless people what their rights actually are. Which means if you’re living on the streets of New Hampshire’s cities, you’re expected to pull off a kind of magic trick: make yourself disappear, right in plain sight.
This story is part two in a special series on homelessness in New Hampshire:
http://www.nhprdigital.org/series-homeless-in-nh#special-series-homeless-in-nh
What Happened to Gene Parker?
This past winter a car struck and killed a homeless man in Concord. His name was Gene Parker - he lived on the streets for five years and in that time his friends and advocates fought hard to get him into an apartment. But he died before that could happen.
This past winter a car struck and killed a homeless man in Concord. His name was Gene Parker - he lived on the streets for five years and in that time his friends and advocates fought hard to get him into an apartment. But he died before that could happen. Parker’s story is brutal, but it also says a lot about why it’s so hard to pull someone like him out of homelessness.
This story is part one in a multi-media series on homelessness in New Hampshire :
http://www.nhprdigital.org/series-homeless-in-nh#special-series-homeless-in-nh
How a Few Lines on a Map Hold So Much Power in New Hampshire Politics
Democrats are having success like never before, scoring wins that would have been unimaginable just two decades ago. But despite that shift, there’s one place where Republicans still have a leg up on Election Day: the state Legislature. And there’s a reason for this, an invisible force that drives everything in politics, that you probably won’t hear mentioned on the campaign trail: redistricting.
Here’s a confusing reality about New Hampshire politics today: Democrats are having success like never before, scoring wins that would have been unimaginable just two decades ago. But despite that shift, there’s one place where Republicans still have a leg up on Election Day: the state Legislature. And there’s a reason for this, an invisible force that drives everything in politics, that you probably won’t hear mentioned on the campaign trail: redistricting.
In Face Of Immigration Rhetoric, Latinos Grapple With Having A Voice
Olmer Villavicencio talks to his daughter, Jocelyn, about what he's struggling with. These days, that’s how to get his neighbors to see their voice matters this election. Olmer's not an organizer or a politician. He's a guy who knows everybody and, living in New Hampshire, has a front-row seat to the presidential race. He says it's just about getting fellow Latinos to see it that way.
Olmer Villavicencio talks to his daughter, Jocelyn, about what he's struggling with. These days, that’s how to get his neighbors to see their voice matters this election. Olmer's not an organizer or a politician. He's a guy who knows everybody and, living in New Hampshire, has a front-row seat to the presidential race. He says it's just about getting fellow Latinos to see it that way.
Amid Backlash Against Isolating Inmates, New Mexico Moves Toward Change
Level 6 of New Mexico's state penitentiary in Santa Fe is a dense complex of prison cells, stacked tight. As the gate opens, men's faces press against narrow glass windows. They spend 23 hours a day in solitary.
Level 6 of New Mexico's state penitentiary in Santa Fe is a dense complex of prison cells, stacked tight. As the gate opens, men's faces press against narrow glass windows. They spend 23 hours a day in solitary. Security is so high that talking to one of the inmates, Nicklas Trujeque, requires a guard passing a microphone through the food port of his cell door.
Why is Justice for Garrett Phillips So Complicated?
People in St. Lawrence County know his face: the smiling, golden-haired 12-year-old boy, Garrett Phillips. It’s going on four years since his murder, and the posters demanding "Justice for Garrett" are still in the hardware store and the laundromat windows, on bumper stickers and front lawns.
People in St. Lawrence County know his face: the smiling, golden-haired 12-year-old boy, Garrett Phillips. It’s been almost four years since his murder, and the posters demanding "Justice for Garrett" are still in the hardware store and laundromat windows, on bumper stickers and front lawns.
This Must Be The Place (Series)
“This Must Be the Place” is a multi-media story series exploring off-the-beaten-path people and places across the North Country.
The word “remote” gets tossed around a lot in the North Country, but the Tug Hill region truly fits the bill. Lots of land, not a lot of roads, fewer than 50 people per square mile and most of them concentrated in the villages. Long, rolling stretches of fields and forest. Driving around the first night, I felt like I was on the open ocean.
“This Must Be the Place” is a multi-media story series exploring off-the-beaten-path people and places across the North Country:
Despite Bans, Pregnant Prisoners Still Shackled During Birth
Across the country, it's common practice to handcuff a pregnant prisoner to her hospital bed while she gives birth.
Photo by Jane Evelyn Atwood
Across the country, it's common practice to handcuff a pregnant prisoner to her hospital bed while she gives birth. Maria Caraballo gave birth to her daughter an entire year after New York passed its anti-shackling law. But she says she was handcuffed for eight hours the day her daughter Estrella was born.
Campus Rape in the North Country (3-Part Series)
One in four female college students will be raped or sexually assaulted before they graduate. Students are more likely to report when they see their school is willing to act aggressively, but in practice, only about 10 percent of perpetrators face expulsion, much less criminal prosecution. What laws and policies are supposed to protect women at college? And why aren't they working?
https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/26936/20141217/campus-rape-in-the-north-country
Between A Town And Its Bears, A Star-Crossed Relationship
Most people in the town of Old Forge, N.Y., want to refrain from feeding black bears. The trouble is, without the bears coming around as often as they do, the town could stand to lose a lot of its tourism.
Most people in the town of Old Forge, N.Y., want to refrain from feeding black bears. The trouble is, without the bears coming around as often as they do, the town could stand to lose a lot of its tourism.
Grappling with 40 Years of the Drug War In Brownsville, Brooklyn
Aaron Hinton says the 40-year drug war in Brownsville has almost made spending time behind bars normal. “It’s subliminally attacking out minds and making us believe that socially this is acceptable.” One out of every 50 men in New York’s prisons comes from Brownsville. The state of New York spends $40 million a year – and this has been going on for generations — locking up black and Hispanic men from this one neighborhood. What does that do to a community?
Brownsville 1972, photo by Winston Vargas
Aaron Hinton says the 40-year drug war in Brownsville has almost made spending time behind bars normal. “It’s subliminally attacking out minds and making us believe that socially this is acceptable.” One out of every 50 men in New York’s prisons comes from Brownsville. The state of New York spends $40 million a year – and this has been going on for generations — locking up black and Hispanic men from this one neighborhood. What does that do to a community?
Goodbye, Hometown
It's travel time for a lot of people this week. But one family from the North Country recently made a bigger journey than most—all the way to sunny California, and they did the whole trip by train. The family had a one way ticket, taking them out to a new life on the west coast.
It's travel time for a lot of people this week. But one family from the North Country recently made a bigger journey than most—all the way to sunny California, and they did the whole trip by train. The family had a one way ticket, taking them out to a new life on the west coast.
Dying Inmates in New York Struggle to Get Home
Over the last four decades, New York’s prison population has soared, with many people serving long mandatory sentences for low-level crimes. As a result, the number of elderly inmates is surging—growing by almost eighty percent from 2000 through 2009.
Coxsackie Correctional Facility - Greene County, NY
Many terminally ill inmates are forced to remain behind bars even when they no longer appear to be a threat to society. This is the story of Daryl Bidding’s long struggle to get home before he dies.
The Howl of the Eastern Timber Wolf
Every August for the past 50 years, people from all around the world have made the journey to Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario to hear the howl of the Eastern Timber Wolf, once a ubiquitous sound in the wild.
Every August for the past 50 years, people from all around the world have made the journey to Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario to hear the howl of the Eastern Timber Wolf, once a ubiquitous sound in the wild.
Rare American Chestnut Stands Tall In Northern New York
American chestnuts once made up a quarter of all the forest between Maine and Georgia. Animals depended on the tree for its fruit and humans used the wood. But at the beginning of the last century, a blight wiped out almost all of the chestnut trees. A few survive, including one specimen in upstate New York. The family that planted that tree 27 years ago enjoys its blooms each year at this time.
American chestnuts once made up a quarter of all the forest between Maine and Georgia. Animals depended on the tree for its fruit and humans used the wood. But at the beginning of the last century, a blight wiped out almost all of the chestnut trees. A few survive, including one specimen in upstate New York.
When Should Infants Stay with Their Mothers in Prison?
The number of women in American prisons has gone up by 800 percent over the past thirty years, according to the Federal Bureau of Justice. Most of these women are mothers, and about one in twenty of them are pregnant. In New York State, a woman who gives birth while serving time has the chance to stay with her baby in a prison nursery for up to one year, or eighteen months if the mother is eligible for parole by then.
In New York State, a woman who gives birth while serving time has the chance to stay with her baby in a prison nursery, for up to one year, or eighteen months if the mother is eligible for parole by then. A Department of Corrections study found that participating in prison nurseries lowers recidivism rates dramatically—cutting the chances of a woman coming back to prison in half. Researchers say these programs also help the babies, giving them a chance to form secure attachments to their moms. But in recent years, the state’s prison nursery is slowing its admission rate.
A Look Inside Moriah Shock Prison
Two years ago, Moriah Shock Prison near Port Henry was next on the list of correctional facilities New York State wanted to close. Camp Gabriels near Saranac Lake and the Summit Shock Prison near Albany had already been shut down, and the prisons in Lyon Mountain and Ogdensburg were also on the chopping block. But the local community and Essex County officials rallied enough support to keep Moriah open. Today, 188 men live on the spartan campus, set in a former mining facility at the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains.
It’s lunchtime in the chow hall at Moriah Shock Prison. The room looks like a high school cafeteria. There are fifty men sitting in their seats, eyes straight ahead or locked on their trays of food. When the prison captain Boyce Rawson walks in, one inmate breaks discipline: he turns his head to look, and gets dressed down.
Looking for the Heart of Saturday Night
On some Saturday nights, when no one's watching, one young man comes up to the top floor of the St. Lawrence University student center and plays the piano.
On some Saturday nights, when no one's watching, one young man comes up to the top floor of the St. Lawrence University student center and plays the piano.
Earthlings Watch the Venus Transit
Yesterday evening Venus made its last journey across the face of the sun, as seen from Earth, until the year 2117. People of all ages covered the southeast corner of the St. Lawrence University practice fields to get their look at earth’s closest neighboring planet, peering through one of the big telescopes or a pair of safe solar glasses.
Photo by Melissa Burchard
Yesterday evening Venus made its last journey across the face of the sun, as seen from Earth, until the year 2117. People of all ages covered the southeast corner of the St. Lawrence University practice fields to get their look at earth’s closest neighboring planet, peering through one of the big telescopes or a pair of safe solar glasses.