Parole board aims to curb cursing [View all]

CONCORD - The New Hampshire parole board is developing a new procedure manual and code of conduct, amid criticism of the way parole hearings have been conducted.

Adult Parole Board Chairman Donna Sytek said "intemperate remarks" have no place in public proceedings, and she has raised the issue with two board members whose use of foul language was featured in a report by New Hampshire Public Radio that was republished last month in the New Hampshire Union Leader.

"I've talked to the two members who were quoted in the article and they assured me it will not happen again," said Sytek, a former House Speaker and chairman of the Legislative Ethics Commission whose expertise in protocol is well-known at the State House.

She said the board had already been working with a University of New Hampshire law student to draft the manual before the article was published. "It's designed to be a summer project," she said. "We're hoping we'll have a draft to approve in the fall. We hope to put in writing the internal practices of the parole board, not administrative rules, but an internal document to tell us how hearings should be conducted."

Read more: http://www.unionleader.com/Parole-board-aims-to-curb-cursing