New Defibrillators in Place in Dept. of Corrections Facilities

(Concord, N.H.) New Hampshire Corrections Commissioner William L. Wrenn announced that eight automatic external defibrillators are now part of the emergency equipment utilized by the nursing staff in the Department of Corrections prison facilities.

“These defibrillators are important pieces of equipment that our medical staff can operate to provide the best care possible during an emergency,” Commissioner Wrenn said.

Some of the defibrillators were made possible by donations through a fund established in the memory of the late Donald Miller, a Department of Information Technology employee who was assigned to the DOC. He died of cardiac arrest while working at the New Hampshire State Prison in Concord on January 11, 2008.

The DOC nursing staff have been trained and certified in the use of this equipment and the Nursing Coordinator at each facility acts as the Automatic External Defibrillator Health Services Coordinator under a new DOC policy signed by the Commissioner on May 11, 2010. The equipment will be easily accessible at all times.

“Maintaining the health and safety of inmates, staff, and visitors to our facilities remains a department priority and this is another resource to assist in that responsibility,” the Commissioner said.

The defibrillators have been installed at the New Hampshire State Prison in Concord, the New Hampshire State Prison for Women in Goffstown, the Northern New Hampshire Correctional Facility in Berlin, and the Secure Psychiatric Unit/Residential Treatment Unit in Concord.