Amid abuse and neglect investigations at Sununu Youth Services Center, director resigns

Joshua Nye, who ran New Hampshire’s youth detention facility in Manchester for less than six months, has resigned, the Department of Health and Human Services announced this week.

“Joshua Nye submitted his resignation on May 20, 2026, effective immediately, and it was accepted by DCYF Director Marie Noonan,” Jake Leon, spokesperson for the department, wrote in an email to the Bulletin.

Nye, who had served in the director role since January, has come under fire recently amid controversy at the Sununu Youth Services Center, which houses children in trouble with the law. Gov. Kelly Ayotte said she is now looking for a replacement.

The Bulletin reached out to McGrath Law Firm, which is representing Nye, for comment, but has not heard back. Peter McGrath told New Hampshire Public Radio on Tuesday that his client is being used as “a bit of a scapegoat.”

The center has been rocked by fresh allegations of abuse and neglect toward the children in its custody. In late March, the Office of the Child Advocate — a youth focused state watchdog agency — reported concerns that facility staff were imposing an overly restrictive lockdown on the children and weren’t providing adequate education or access to the outdoors. The office also said it found security camera footage showing an employee breaking a child’s bone performing an illegal restraint.

The allegations have only deepened since. In April, the Disability Rights Center-NH — a federally funded disability-focused watchdog — announced it too found evidence of potential abuse at the facility. The DRC said it learned of a new staff policy at the facility involving illegal restraints. Specifically, the agency said facility staff were physically guiding children by hand around the facility and if children refused to be guided, staff were instructed to escalate to a more severe method, including prone restraints, which experts say are dangerous and risk suffocating the child.

The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office also announced a parallel investigation and the facility has promised to cooperate.

State senators, concerned about the new reports, created a subcommittee to investigate the claims. Members have questioned officials and heard reports of unnecessary strip searches, more concerning restraint techniques, and a child being denied water as a behavior management tactic. Committee members took a tour of the facility, but Sen. Victoria Sullivan said the facility wouldn’t let them speak to staff or youth at the facility.

Sullivan said in a committee meeting following the tour: “There is an extreme failure of leadership in the facility that falls squarely on the bureau chief.” She and her colleagues called on Nye specifically to resign immediately. Nye heeded the request soon after.

The subcommittee has also called on the Department of Health and Human Services, which operates the facility, to implement more de-escalation training and improve the education it provides. It’s also recommending that at least some of the recent budget cuts made to the Office of the Child Advocate be reversed, and that the office have more power to oversee the Sununu Youth Services Center.

Facility officials have said a series of altercations between children and staff led to the tighter grip on the underage detainees. Indeed, multiple workers’ compensation claims have been filed to the state by facility employees who say they were injured on the job. And Division for Children, Youth and Families Director Marie Noonan told lawmakers that since the allegations have surfaced, the child detainees, aware of the attention the facility is getting in the state, have begun acting out and threatening to report staff who attempt to legitimately enforce rules.

Cassandra Sanchez, who leads the Office of the Child Advocate, acknowledged this in an interview with the Bulletin shortly after her report.

“We’re not saying this came out of completely nowhere,” she said at the time. “But at the same time, I do not feel that the injuries that staff sustained in this situation required the response that we saw.”

The facility (which was formerly known as the Youth Detention Center) has been beset by scandal for years. Hundreds of former child inmates have spoken up about abuse and neglect they allegedly faced at the center across decades. Those allegations have turned into a series of lawsuits resulting in millions of dollars of settlements being paid out by the state.