Medical & Mental Health in New Hampshire (NHDOC)

Who Provides Care

Healthcare in New Hampshire’s prisons is run by NHDOC’s own Division of Medical and Forensic Services — medical, dental, and behavioral health — with contracted clinicians staffing the facilities and hospital-level care provided through partnerships with community hospitals. Daily sick call runs at the facilities, dental clinics operate at all three prisons, and the system includes infirmary and hospice care. The department re-bid its comprehensive healthcare staffing contract in 2025; it does not prominently publish the current contractor’s name, so “the medical department” at the facility is the working reference point.

Sick Call and the Co-Pay

A resident-initiated medical or dental sick-call visit carries a $3 co-payment, deducted from the resident account, under a directive effective since 2008. The published exemptions are broad: emergencies, staff-initiated appointments, the first 14 days after admission, juveniles, pregnancy-related care, mental-health care for people with serious mental illness or developmental disabilities, Secure Psychiatric Unit patients, chronic-disease follow-ups, and inpatient stays. Two published protections apply: treatment cannot be refused for lack of funds — an account simply goes negative — and co-pay charges can be appealed through the grievance process.

Medication and MAT

NHDOC’s addiction-treatment directive (issued July 2024) lists the medications it provides for opioid and alcohol use disorder — naltrexone and Vivitrol, buprenorphine in its forms (including Sublocade and Suboxone), disulfiram, and acamprosate — and sets a continuation rule at the door: a person arriving on medication-assisted treatment is referred to the primary care provider immediately, with the community prescriber confirmed, and withdrawal screening happens at intake. Methadone is not on the published list. Release planning includes a referral to continue MAT in the community.

Pregnancy

The pregnancy directive (issued July 2023) provides testing at intake, prenatal and postpartum care at NHDOC’s expense, a provider evaluation within seven business days of arrival, and referral of high-risk pregnancies to an obstetrician. New Hampshire law and the directive both restrict restraints — no belly chains under any circumstances, and none during transport for labor or delivery absent an extraordinary written determination. Newborns are not kept in any NHDOC facility, and the department publishes no nursery program; placement after a birth is planned with the resident’s case manager under the directive. The statewide visiting rule adds two extra weekly visits with the newborn for up to eight months after delivery.

Mental Health and the Secure Psychiatric Unit

Behavioral health care runs through the same medical division, with two dedicated units on the Concord men’s prison grounds. The Residential Treatment Unit (RTU) is a behavioral-health unit for men whose mental-health conditions make general population unworkable — including as a step-down from the SPU — with about 30 hours of weekly programming. The Secure Psychiatric Unit (SPU) is the state’s most secure inpatient psychiatric facility — and a distinct institution in practice: it holds men and women from state and county custody alongside people civilly committed through the courts, under the Director of Medical and Forensics rather than a warden, with its own mailing address (P.O. Box 2828) and its own visiting night. Each unit visits one evening a week (SPU Tuesday, RTU Wednesday, 5:00-7:00 p.m.). For mental-health system navigation outside the walls, NAMI New Hampshire (naminh.org) operates statewide.

Raising a Concern from Outside

The sequence for a family worried about someone’s care:

1. A release of information (ROI) comes first. NHDOC releases nothing about a person’s medical or mental-health care without a signed release — there is a separate form for medical information — and the person must initiate it with their case manager.
2. The person’s own grievance path is the formal channel for care complaints: a written complaint within 30 days of the event, then a Level I grievance to the Director of Medical and Forensic Services, then a Level II grievance to the commissioner. Confidential sealed complaints to medical staff or the commissioner are allowed, and retaliation is prohibited by rule.
3. Anyone — including family — can file a citizen complaint about treatment, staff misconduct, or a death, through the complaint form on NHDOC’s website or to the facility’s warden or chief investigator.
4. Sexual abuse reports from third parties are accepted: preareporting@doc.nh.gov or (603) 271-3140, with the Victim Services Unit at 1-888-646-6842 as an alternate route.

New Hampshire publishes no independent corrections ombudsman, so these department channels — plus the constituent path through the central office at (603) 271-5600 — are the published options.

Verify Before Acting

For the general, nationwide overview of this topic, see the national guide: Know Your Rights.