Inmate found with Social Security information at NH prison

(NECN: Lauren Collins, Manchester, NH) – About 1,000 employees of the New Hampshire Department of Corrections have learned their personal information may have been compromised. The bigger mystery is how an inmate got a hold of that information. Ed Hager knows the power of his social security number. “That can be used to find out anything.” He’s a little uneasy right now. His was one of a thousand names and social security numbers on a list found inside a minimum-security cell at the state prison in Concord last week. DOC Spokesman Jeff Lyons says “it’s a document that’s produced internally by our human resources office to track employees.” The document had come from the Lakes Region Facility in Laconia, which closed at the end of June. It was in storage at this Department of Corrections warehouse in Concord, destined for the shredder. Lyons says the inmate who had the list under his mattress was assigned to work at the warehouse. He’s since been moved to a maximum-security cell as an administrative investigation determines when and how that information fell into a criminal’s hands. And while prison officials say the inmate likely had that information for just a few days, Hager says, “it could have gone anywhere and the individual that had it could have had it a day, a week, maybe a month.” Hager heads the union that represents the prison’s civilian employees. He was notified about the breach via email while on vacation, but says some of his members learned about it on the news. “A lot of people feel betrayed,” he says. “They felt the department was very negligent in how they were handling this situation.” He’s worried their personal information may have made it beyond the barbed wire. “People want to see the department step up, do the right thing, help them monitor their credit.” Lyons says, for now, there’s no reason to believe anyone’s identity is at imminent risk. The department is in the process of individually contacting everyone affected and is consulting with the attorney general’s office. “We’re also going to take a look, of course, at inmates and where they are assigned for their work assignments,” Lyons says.