“Concerns over allegations of abuse at the Sununu Youth Services Center are now a point of contention in the race for governor.” – WMUR 4/30/26

CONCORD, NH — This week, Cinde Warmington, Democratic candidate for Governor, shined a light on Kelly Ayotte’s cuts to the Office of the Child Advocate (OCA), which have led to ongoing abuse of children at the Sununu Youth Services Center. 

Following a news conference in Concord — where Warmington was joined by State Sen. Pat Long and State Rep. Mary Jane Wallner — Child Advocate Cassandra Sanchez confirmed that “staffing cuts overall have led to less frequent visits to the Sununu Youth Services Center” and that the abuse would have been discovered earlier had Ayotte not made cuts resulting in reduced staff.  

As governor, Warmington will ensure that both the Office of the Child Advocate and the Division for Children, Youth and Families have what they need to keep kids in state custody safe. 

Read more below:

WMUR: Warmington calls out Ayotte over continuing reports of abuse at SYSC
Kirk Enstrom / 4/30/26

• Concerns over allegations of abuse at the Sununu Youth Services Center are now a point of contention in the race for governor

• "She made those budget cuts, she weakened the watchdog responsible for protecting these kids, and our state lost the sole employee for monitoring reports of restraints and seclusion," Warmington said.

• […]

Union Leader: Warmington: Ayotte’s budget cuts led to new abuse claims at Sununu Youth Services Center
Kevin Landrigan / 4/28/26

• […]

• If elected, Warmington said Wednesday she’d restore the Office of Child Advocate (OCA) budget and speed up completion of a smaller, treatment-centered facility set to replace the Sununu Center, which is under construction on the grounds of the former Hampstead Hospital complex.

• […]

• “Isn’t it appalling that with that history and with the fact that Kelly Ayotte was the attorney general during all of that time? Isn’t it appalling that she let this happen on her watch now again, that she’s created a new generation of victims?” Warmington asked during her first press conference since announcing her second run for governor in February.

• […]

• Two Democratic leaders on children and family issues, state Sen. Pat Long of Manchester and Rep. Mary Jane Wallner of Concord, joined Warmington in condemning the budget cuts and Ayotte’s decision to change the administrator of a victim’s settlement fund from a judicial appointee to a political appointee.

• […]

New Hampshire Bulletin: Warmington slams Ayotte over child advocate cuts amid new Sununu Center revelations
William Skipworth / 4/30/26

• The Sununu Youth Services Center has been rocked in recent weeks by new allegations of abuse and neglect, and Cinde Warmington, a Democratic challenger in the New Hampshire governor’s race, blames Gov. Kelly Ayotte and a budget cut she signed into law.

• […]

• “To be clear, Kelly Ayotte’s budget cuts to the Office of Child Advocate have allowed this abuse to persist, and worse, she has created yet another generation of victims — kids,” Warmington said at a Concord press conference Wednesday morning. “She weakened the watchdog responsible for protecting these kids and our state lost the sole employee who’s responsible for monitoring reports of restraints and seclusions. The result? Seclusions, restraints, isolation that went undetected, and a child physically restrained and left with a broken bone.”

• [...]

• In a follow-up interview after Warmington’s statement, Sanchez said the staffing cuts overall have led to less frequent visits to the Sununu Youth Services Center, and staff never visited the facility in February. She said that if they had, they would’ve discovered the situation. “If we were going out every single month, we would have caught that in February,” Sanchez said.

• Asked whether she’d spoken to Sanchez about the situation and what her response was to the Bulletin’s reporting, Warmington said she had spoken to her and “my response to that is that that is also a failure of leadership — that the paperwork was improperly completed so that the OCA was not aware of the injury that happened, which would have made that particular incident report rise to the top.”

• During the press conference, Warmington broadly railed against the governor, who oversees the departments that operate the Sununu Youth Services Center, for the incidents. 

• “There were 15 kids at the Sununu Youth Center,” Warmington said. “Fifteen kids! Fourteen now, because the child with the broken bone has been removed. Kelly Ayotte, could we even keep 15 kids safe? How can we expect her to protect the children in state custody? We can’t.” Since the OCA’s report, more allegations have emerged. 

• [...]

• Sanchez has vocally condemned the cuts. “It absolutely did have an impact,” she said in July when the cuts were enacted. “It had an impact on the people that we have available to do the work, which is going to have an impact on the work that we’re able to do and the effectiveness of the office.”

Granite Post: ‘Kelly Ayotte couldn’t even keep 15 kids safe’: Warmington blasts governor over new YDC abuse
Colin Booth / 4/29/26

• The Office of the Child Advocate’s April 9 report found that staff broke a child’s bone while performing an illegal restraint that was caught on facility security cameras, and that children at the center had been held in lockdown for more than a month without adequate education or outdoor time. Two weeks later, the Disability Rights Center–New Hampshire issued its own findings describing a new staff practice of escalating to prone restraint when children refuse to be physically guided. 

• Warmington, joined by two Democratic lawmakers at the press conference, highlighted that additional allegations have since surfaced in media reports, including a story of a child being denied drinking water as leverage to move him to a unit he said he did not feel safe in, and children being strip-searched upon intake.

• “Kelly Ayotte couldn’t even keep 15 kids safe,” Warmington said, noting that the population at the facility has dropped to 14 after the child with the broken bone was removed in recent weeks. “How can we expect her to protect the children in state custody? We can’t.”