This overview presents the background reasons for the Justice Reinvestment Initiative in New Hampshire and discusses the outcomes reflected in criminal justice and behavioral health trends from 2010 to 2018, compared with trends since 2019.
This paper provides an overview of the government of the state of New Hampshire’s efforts to develop solutions that would appropriately respond to people in the justice system who are high utilizers of the jail and behavioral systems, and to reduce the cycle of incarceration for people with mental health and substance use needs. The paper reports on the Justice Reinvestment Initiative, which has facilitated a Medicaid and cross-system data match that would identify the people with behavioral health needs that frequently move through local criminal justice systems, and used quantitative and qualitative analyses to develop policy options designed to improve services, reduce recidivism, and increase public safety and public health outcomes throughout the state; it describes the initiative’s approach, detailing the data analysis, policy adoption, and performance measurement. In addition, the Initiative includes the conducting of focus groups with key stakeholders, with the goal of better understanding the challenges faced in identifying and addressing the behavioral health needs of people who are high utilizers of the system.