Incarceration does not treat addiction, it cultivates it. As NH and the nation faces a crippling opioid epidemic, Chief Justice of NH’s Superior Court Justice Tina Nadeau explains that if we want to increase public safety, reduce costs of incarceration and return offenders to the community as productive members, we need to invest in alternatives to incarceration. One alternative — drug courts — has proven very effective in treating the underlying conditions that result in criminal behavior.

Tina Nadeau is the Chief Justice of the New Hampshire Superior Court. She was appointed to the bench in 1996 and began serving as Chief Justice in 2011. Prior to her appointment to the bench, she served as legal counsel to Governor Stephen Merrill.

She began her legal career in 1989 as an assistant attorney general in the homicide division. In 2013, Judge Nadeau received the Caroline Gross Fellowship award to attend the Kennedy School of Government on Executive Leadership; the 2013 Eric Cogswell Achievement award, recognizing commitment to addressing the over-incarceration of offenders with mental illness; and she was the 2013 recipient of the Marilla Ricker award, presented by the NH Bar to women in leadership positions.

In 2015 she received the Advocacy award from New Futures and the Wheelok-Nardi award from Greater Manchester Mental Health for her work advocating for those with mental health and substance abuse issues.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx