New Hampshire Drug Court Evidence-Based Treatment Assessment and Participation Improvement Project

BJA FY 21 Adult Drug Court and Veterans Treatment Court Discretionary Grant Program

NH Drug Court Program (NH DCP) Grant Proposal Abstract

New Hampshire (NH) has seen a dramatic increase in drug-related overdose deaths and has some of the nation’s highest rates for opioid overdoses per capita. At any given time, NH DCP serves up to 400 high-risk/high need individuals who are diagnosed as chemically dependent. Services are available through ten adult drug treatment courts for an average of 21 months. Minimum participation is 18 months; the maximum is 30 months. NH DCP uses a post-plea model and evidence-based practices and treatment, including medication-assisted treatment (MAT) services.

The New Hampshire Department of Justice (NH DOJ) requests $1,472,514 Adult Drug Court funds, according to Category 4 of the FY21 Adult Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program, to fund a statewide 48-month enhancement project for the NH Judicial Branch, Drug Court Program (NH DCP) that will achieve the following objectives:

Enhance the statewide drug court database to support recidivism tracking and improve utilization
Expand evidence-based practices training
Address barriers to treatment access by providing transportation services, particularly in rural communities
Conduct an outcome evaluation to examine the recidivism rates of drug court participants at 1 and 3 years post-program and validate the statewide risk assessment tool

The plan to expand and improve NH DCP treatment services includes:  Enable data integration for near-real-time alerts and notifications, Expand services and improve quality through a comprehensive Evidence-Based Practices (EBP) training program, Add cost-efficient and locally-based transportation services for NH DCP clients in need, particularly in rural poverty areas and Qualified Opportunity Zones, and Identify improvement opportunities from a recidivism study and an analysis of the ORAS risk assessment tool.

The resulting deliverables include: Software that sends electronic alerts and notifications to NH DCP coordinators and clients; Executed and tracked training plan; Functioning, trackable transportation services program facilitated by local NH DCP coordinators; Completed recidivism and ORAS validation studies. The beneficiaries are NH DCP clients and drug court teams, NH DCP clients who struggle with lack of transportation barriers, and all NH DCP external stakeholders. This grant would specifically address standards 1, 6, 8, and 10.

In October 2019, NH DCP received a grant from the BJA-2019-15084, BJA FY 19 Adult Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program, Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance. However, NH DCP is not leveraging any other federal funding sources.