criminal justice reform

The New Hampshire Senate passed a bill last week based on recommendations from Gov. Sununu's commission on police accountability and transparency.

The governor created the so-called LEACT commission last summer in response to the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolice Police.

But Senate members voted in favor of an amendment that eliminated key parts of the bill, and police reform advocates say the changes effectively gut the bill.

New Hampshire has seen an increase in grassroots organization around racial justice this past year, and more activists are showing up in legislative sessions to push for civil rights. Now, those advocates are leading conversations on criminal justice and police reform at the State House.

There's been a lot of public debate over police reform in the last year. A statewide commission on police accountability and transparency made many recommendations for reform this past summer, and now some of those are under consideration this legislative session.

Around midnight on a Saturday, Thomas Hurd fell asleep at the bar of a Chinese restaurant in Farmington, New Hampshire. 

The bartender, suspecting Hurd was drunk when he got there, asked him to leave. According to police reports, Hurd instead began smashing plates and flipping tables. 

NHPR has been looking at criminal justice reform in New Hampshire and its effect on policing across the state.

Bail reform went into effect in New Hampshire in September. Since then, many police officials have been frustrated causing tension between law enforcement and reform advocates. This led lawmakers to revisit the issue with a new bill, SB 314.

Morning Edition Host Rick Ganley spoke with Democratic Senate Majority Leader Dan Feltes, the sponsor of that bill.

NHPR’s Morning Edition been taking a look at criminal justice reform in New Hampshire and its effect on policing across the state.

Gov. Chris Sununu signed SB 556 last summer that brought big changes to New Hampshire’s bail system, but leaders in law enforcement say those changes are making their jobs more difficult.

Tobias Tarr spent the afternoon of June 17, 2017 tending to the garden at a homeless shelter in Keene.

That evening, still covered in dirt, Tarr found himself in an awkward situation: a resident of the facility had arrived home drunk and agitated.

“I sat with him on the couch and just calmed him down. He had it in his head that he wanted to beat somebody up upstairs,” says Tarr.

Natacha Davis is juggling a lot these days. She’s living with her mom, raising her three kids, and training to become a recovery coach to help people overcome addiction.

On a recent evening, she was running out the door for an A.A. meeting in Nashua. As she grabbed her keys, she peered into a Puerto Rican plantain stew simmering on the stove.

“Mom is the food done yet?”

“Not yet!” Her mom answered.

“Alright Mom. I love you. I’ll be back,” Davis opened the door. “You heard me? I love you.”

Like many a millennial hired at the dawn of the era of social media, Zachary Byam found himself in charge of creating a Facebook page at his college job.

But his task was unique. Byam worked as a part-time police officer, and he was creating his department's first social media account.