You're listening to Operation Nightcat.

I'm Nate Hedgy.

For weeks, our producer Jason Moon had been trying to get a hold of a pivotal source for this series.

A 55-year-old former inmate at the New Hampshire State Prison for Men, Sean Cochran.

I'm sorry, but the person you called has a voice mailbox that has not been set up yet.

At the time, Sean was out on parole, and he had been a hard guy to reach until Jason finally got a hold of him on the phone on a Sunday morning.

Hey, Sean. Can you hear me okay?

Yeah, I can hear you fine.

Cool. All right.

In 2021, Sean was one of more than a thousand inmates at the New Hampshire State Prison for Men.

It's a massive compound on the outskirts of the state capital that honestly looks more like an East Coast factory than a prison.

It's all red brick walls and tiny windows built back in the 1870s.

Sean had been in and out of that prison for more than two decades, so he knew it well.

And he told us there are a lot of issues.

The food is absolutely disgusting.

The place is an absolute fill.

There have been rat infestations, mold problems, holes in the walls, the sewer backs up weekly, and it has long been understaffed.

In the spring of 2025, more than a third of all positions in the prison remained unfilled.

So corrections officers there work long hours to cover the gaps.

So nine times out of ten, your interaction with them is very short, very disrespectful,

because they grumpy because they've worked 75, 80, 100 hours that week.

Back in 2021, Sean was serving time after getting busted for theft.

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