State of the States 2026: What Governors Are Saying About Crime, Behavioral Health, and Reentry

In this year’s state-of-the-state addresses, governors across the country reported meaningful reductions in violent crime and overdose deaths. They also announced major investments in law enforcement, mental health systems, and crisis response infrastructure. And increasingly, they described these not as separate agendas but as interconnected parts of a single goal: building communities where people are safe, healthy, and able to succeed.

Here’s a look at what states have already achieved and what they’re focusing on going forward.

Violent Crime and Public Safety

Perhaps the most striking feature of governors’ 2026 addresses was the breadth of reported reductions in crime.

• Alaska: Overall crime down nearly 42%; violent crime down nearly 19%; property crime down 48%
• California: Double-digit decreases across multiple crime categories; record-low homicide rates in Oakland (lowest since 1967), Los Angeles (lowest since 1966), and San Francisco (lowest since 1954)
• Colorado: Violent crime down over 13%; property crime down nearly 18%; car theft down 61% over 4 years
• Maryland: Homicides down nearly 50%
• Pennsylvania: Violent crime down 12%; fatal gun violence down 42%
• Tennessee: Crime down 55% in Shelby County—lowest monthly totals in more than 25 years

➡️ View your state’s crime data and trends.

States attribute these gains to a number of factors that often work in tandem:

• Multi-agency collaboration across local, state, and federal partners, such as Tennessee’s Memphis Safe Task Force—a partnership between local, state, and federal agencies that produced significant crime reduction in Shelby County
• Violence prevention measures, such as Maryland’s ENOUGH Initiative to fund poverty-stricken neighborhoods where violence is prevalent and Pennsylvania’s effort to expand violence intervention initiatives
• Sustained investment in law enforcement, such as Pennsylvania’s 2,000 additional beat cops and Colorado’s $15 million investment in recruitment, training, and retention

Behavioral Health and Crisis Response

Many governors addressed mental health, substance use, or crisis response in their 2026 speeches and described system improvements in those areas.

Transforming Crisis Response

States are investing heavily in alternatives and complements to traditional law enforcement responses for people experiencing mental health crises:

• Kansas: Among the first states to operationalize the 988 Crisis Hotline; substantially expanded school-based mental health services
• Pennsylvania: Dedicated state funding for 988 for the first time ever; crisis line handled more than 145,000 calls in 2025
• Virginia: Mobile crisis teams deployed statewide, achieving an average response time of 42 minutes; 988 crisis calls up 456% to more than 30,000 per month

➡️ Read about our first-of-its-kind statewide Crisis Intervention Team TA center.

➡️ Learn how several states are improving crisis response.

Making Progress on the Overdose Crisis

Governors reported some of the most encouraging overdose data in years:

• Alaska: Overdose deaths down nearly 19%; 42 million fatal doses of fentanyl seized in 2024 alone
• Indiana: Overdose deaths down more than 60% in a single year
• Kentucky: Overdose deaths down for 3 consecutive years
• Maryland: Overdose deaths at a 10-year low
• Virginia: Fatal fentanyl overdoses down 59%, leading the nation
• West Virginia: Nearly 40% decline in overdose deaths

➡️ Explore our Collaborative Comprehensive Case Planning tool, which includes tips for developing relapse prevention plans.

Rebuilding Systems from the Ground Up

Some states went beyond program investments to restructure how behavioral health services are organized and run:

• Kansas: Built a behavioral health continuum largely from scratch—988 hotline, expanded school-based services, and a new state psychiatric hospital
• South Carolina: Dissolved three commission-run agencies and consolidated them into a new gubernatorial Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities
• South Dakota: Announced plans to establish Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics statewide
• Virginia: Added more than 30,000 new health care workers and increased care capacity by 241%

➡️ Check out our Aligning Health and Safety initiative that helps states and communities reduce the number of people with behavioral health needs in state and local criminal justice systems.

➡️ Read our brief on how Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics can address mental health and substance use needs in the criminal justice system.

Recidivism and Reentry

The governors who addressed recidivism and reentry made a compelling case: Helping people succeed after incarceration isn’t separate from public safety; it is public safety.

• Kentucky: Record low recidivism rate; more than a dozen new vocational programs in state prisons; a new reentry campus in development through a partnership with the Kentucky Community and Technical College System
• Oklahoma: Prison population reduced by 25% while maintaining record low recidivism rates
• South Carolina: Lowest recidivism rate in the nation, crediting sustained investment in skills training, education, and corrections staffing
• Tennessee: Funding to support nonprofit partners running “at-risk” youth employment and reentry programs

➡️ Learn how our national Reentry 2030 initiative is breaking incarceration cycles by reducing barriers to basic needs like housing, health care, and jobs.

Looking Ahead

The 2026 state-of-the-state addresses paint a picture of states that have seen positive results on many fronts, but that work is far from finished. As governors step up to lead—some of whom are starting new terms—the need for trusted data, practical strategies, and deep cross-systems collaboration has never been greater.

The CSG Justice Center provides data-driven solutions for the most complex justice challenges facing states and communities today. We’ve worked with leaders across all 50 states to develop and implement successful reentry, community supervision, and behavioral health programs through practical, research-informed strategies that deliver measurable results.

Interested in partnership opportunities?

Please reach out to the following staff:

• Reentry and juvenile justice: Contact Susan Gottesfeld at sgottesfeld@csg.org
• Intersection of behavioral health and criminal justice: Contact Hallie Fader-Towe at hfader@csg.org
• Violent crime and community supervision: Contact Grace Beil Call at gcall@csg.org

NOTE: As of Feb. 26, 2026, 40 governors had delivered state-of-the-state remarks. Not all governors deliver formal state-of-the-state addresses, and not all addresses mentioned criminal justice issues.