Name: Bellingham City Council - Public Health, Safety, Justice, and Equity Committee meeting, Jul 27, 2026
Start: 2026-07-27
End: 2026-07-27
Location: City of Bellingham

City Council - Public Health, Safety, Justice, and Equity Committee

Mon, July 27, 2026

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City Council – Public Health, Safety, Justice & Equity Committee — July 27, 2026

This was an informational committee meeting chaired by Council Member Dan Hammill, joined by Council Members Jace Cotton and Skip Williams (Council Member Hollie Huthman was excused). The sole agenda item was a presentation of the Whatcom County Incarceration Prevention and Reduction Task Force (IPRTF) 2026 Annual Report. No binding votes were taken.

Whatcom County IPRTF 2026 Annual Report Presentation

Task Force co-chairs Peter Frasier and Heather Flarity presented the IPRTF's annual report, covering the organization's role, key data findings, ongoing initiatives, and specific asks of the City of Bellingham.

What the IPRTF is — and isn't. Frasier opened by clarifying the task force's role: it does not run jails, diversion programs, or treatment services, and it does not control budgets. Created by the county council in 2015, it serves as a convening table — bringing together the sheriff, prosecutor, public defenders, judges, cities, behavioral health providers, tribal partners, and people with lived experience — to develop consensus recommendations and maintain long-term vision across elections and leadership changes. Since 2023, it also carries a specific charge to monitor progress on the 15 projects of the Justice Project Implementation Plan, which voters approved that year.

Bellingham's contributions recognized. Frasier took time to acknowledge Bellingham's outsized investment in this work: keeping the Alternative Response Team alive with city sales tax dollars and a grant that nearly doubled the city's share; funding community court, teen court, and real alternatives to prosecution; investing $2.5 million in 37 new supportive housing studios for adults with chronic mental health conditions; placing behavioral health staff in the public library; and committing at least $10 million over the next five years to diversion and behavioral health.

Jail booking data and what's driving it. Flarity presented a detailed data analysis drawn from booking records, jail aging reports, and 18 months of Bellingham Police call logs. Annual jail bookings have risen significantly: 9,791 in 2023; 10,391 in 2024; and 12,141 in 2025 — an increase of roughly 3,000 bookings. She attributed this partly to Sheriff Tansley addressing booking restrictions more aggressively after his election, and partly to a post-COVID backlog of warrants. About one-third of 2025 bookings were warrant-only bookings. Among the largest year-over-year increases: controlled substance possession bookings up 357%, DOC detainer bookings up 318%, failure-to-appear for driving with a suspended license up 283%, and disorderly conduct going from zero to 59 bookings.

On the flip side, Flarity highlighted a notable success: over the most recent four-month period, Bellingham generated 583 behavioral health and crisis calls — and zero percent of them resulted in a booking. "That is really good work," she said.

The jail population as a bell curve. About half of all people booked in the county jail stay two days or less, with DUIs and domestic violence as the top two offenses. A smaller group stays a very long time, often for serious crimes. The most resource-intensive group is in the middle — people cycling through the system with overlapping issues of poverty, addiction, untreated mental illness, and homelessness. The task force's work is largely focused on breaking that churn.

Why length of stay is the critical variable. Flarity stressed that length of stay — not the crime rate — is what actually sizes a jail. Current median length of stay is 26 days. The goal is to bring it to 19 days or fewer. Planning projections show that if length of stay grows to 29 days or more, the county could need 700 beds by 2050; managing to 19 days would require approximately 458 beds. The jail currently being programmed is sized at approximately 480 beds.

The Behavioral Care Center. A centerpiece of the presentation was the out-of-custody Behavioral Care Center (BCC), adapted from a Nashville model. Because it operates outside of custody, Medicaid can cover most of its operating costs, making it financially sustainable. The prosecutor's office has already produced an addendum estimating that roughly 1,800 people per year could be diverted to the BCC rather than booked into jail. Frasier called the BCC "one of the first of its kind" and said it "has every chance of becoming a great example across the state."

The jail design "buyback" — and the November 1 deadline. The jail project is currently in the programming phase, where the county decides what the building must do before design and construction begin. A $205 million budget cap was approved by the county council this spring, requiring cuts to the original program. Items cut to meet the budget can potentially be restored ("bought back") if funding is identified — but the buyback window closes November 1, and a program acceptance vote is scheduled for August 11.

The IPRTF has sent the county council rank-ordered buyback recommendations. The two items the task force most urgently wants restored are:

A second courtroom. A single shared courtroom creates a bottleneck, lengthening pretrial length of stay and therefore driving up jail population and costs. (Council Member Lilliquist noted that a county study found adding one Superior Court judge could reduce average daily bed need by approximately 80 beds — a savings worth far more than its cost to build or fund.)

A rapid resource center for re-entry. The task force argues that re-entry support isn't an afterthought — it is the core purpose of the entire system. Hammill also raised the transportation cost question: if cases must be transported to off-site courts of limited jurisdiction (including Bellingham's), who absorbs those costs?

Frasier noted encouragingly that in the past week the county appeared to be working toward a possible solution for the second courtroom, though details were not confirmed.

The data gap — and the task force's clearest ask. Both presenters emphasized that the county currently cannot track a single individual, even anonymized, across the justice and behavioral health systems. Existing data systems are antiquated and were never built to communicate with each other. Without this capacity, the county cannot verify whether its spending is producing the outcomes residents need.

The task force's specific ask: fund one data coordination position — a relatively small cost that would allow the county to finally prove what works. The task force has recommended this twice. Flarity acknowledged that while her own analysis has been thorough, it should not substitute for a properly funded, systemic data function.

The 50/50 funding intent and the interlocal renegotiation. The 2023 ballot measure that funded the Justice Project carried an implicit commitment to split resources roughly evenly between jail construction and behavioral health, diversion, housing, and treatment programs. However, as costs have risen and revenues tightened, the most conservative projections show behavioral health spending reaching only about 16% of the total by 2030 rather than the intended 50%.

Two IPRTF work groups are meeting this summer to address these questions: one focused on what the 50/50 intent actually means and how to define it; another focused on strategies to reduce average daily population and length of stay. A report is expected in late August or early September.

Frasier cautioned against over-prescriptive language in the renegotiated interlocal agreement, noting that the previous interlocal created "a very specific math equation when we didn't fully understand all the variables." The goal should be to enshrine the outcomes and values clearly enough that future leadership understands the intent, while leaving practical flexibility to achieve them.

On booking restrictions, Frasier and Flarity reframed the issue as "booking connections" rather than "booking restrictions" — the idea that every booking should trigger screening, connection to care, and accountability, and that law enforcement should always have a place to turn, whether that is jail or another front-door option.

Council discussion highlights. Council Member Williams expressed strong support for the long-view, re-entry-centered approach, drawing on personal family experience. Council Member Lilliquist (not a committee member but invited to participate given his long involvement) pressed on whether adding a Superior Court judge and courtroom rises to the top priority — both presenters agreed it is among the most impactful investments. Council Member Cotton noted that the 50/50 goal is ultimately a values statement about outcomes, not necessarily a dollar-for-dollar match, and expressed enthusiasm for the upcoming prosecutorial diversion pilot tied to the BCC. Hammill highlighted the role of lived-experience testimony at recent JPOC meetings, noting that virtually every person described a substance use disorder as the driver of their offenses, and raised questions about new programs including "Anchor" (an intensive inpatient program tied to the BCC), "Pathways" (an in-jail treatment program targeting 80 participants in its first year), and "Civic Informer" (a real-time city fire and police data platform).

Vote: This was an informational presentation; no vote was taken.

Key Takeaways

The jail design buyback window closes November 1. The IPRTF is urging the city to voice support for restoring a second courtroom and a rapid resource center in the new jail program — both are framed as cost-saving investments that will reduce length of stay and ultimately reduce the required jail size.

Length of stay is the make-or-break variable. Managing average length of stay to 19 days versus 29 days is the difference between needing 458 beds and 700 beds by 2050. Every policy decision — court processing, diversion, re-entry — runs through this number.

The Behavioral Care Center could divert up to 1,800 people per year from jail to out-of-custody treatment, with Medicaid covering most operating costs. The prosecutor's office has already developed diversion criteria in anticipation of its opening.

A single funded data position is the task force's most concrete ask. Without it, the county cannot track individuals across systems or prove that its investments in diversion and behavioral health are working. The task force wants the city's public support to help carry this request to the county.

Bellingham accounts for roughly 44% of county jail bookings, meaning city policies on diversion, alternative response, and court processing have an outsized effect on the entire county system — and the city's voice in interlocal renegotiations carries real weight.

AI-generated summary from voice-to-text transcript. Not the official record. Verify important details with the source documents linked above.

What happened at this meeting

A presentation of the Whatcom County Incarceration Prevention and Reduction

# Summary

Peter Frasier and Heather Flity, co-chairs of the Whatcom County Incarceration Prevention and Reduction Task Force, presented the 2026 annual report highlighting the task force's work since 2015 to safely reduce incarceration for people struggling with mental illness and chemical dependency through intervention and prevention programs. The task force identified three core goals: keeping people safe and accountable, holding open doors to treatment and care, and preventing people from entering the justice system, with key accomplishments including a prosecutorial diversion work group identifying approximately 1,800 people annually who could be diverted to a new behavioral care center and 583 behavioral health crisis calls resulting in 0% bookings in four months. Frasier highlighted Bellingham's significant contributions, including $10 million over five years for diversion and behavioral health services and $2.5 million for 37 supportive housing studios, and proposed reconceptualizing "booking restrictions" as "booking connections" to ensure every booking leads to screening, care, and accountability. The task force requested critical support for a data coordinator position to track individuals across systems, funding for a second courtroom to reduce jail stays, and a rapid resource center for re-entry, emphasizing that managing length of stay is essential—reducing average stay to 19 days would require only 458 jail beds by 2050 versus 700 beds if stays increased to 29 days. Council members emphasized the importance of maintaining a system focused on re-entry and noted that a cost-benefit analysis showed adding a second courtroom and superior court judge could reduce average daily bed needs by approximately 80 beds while generating millions in cost savings.

Agenda items (1)

Procedural (1)

24993ProceduralA presentation of the Whatcom County Incarceration Prevention and Reduction

Whatcom County will present an update on its program aimed at preventing people from going to jail and reducing the number of people currently incarcerated in the county.

What happened

Verbatim transcript available

156 transcript segments indexed

Welcome back. So, the next committee before us is public health, safety, justice, and equity, and that committee is chaired by Council Member Hamill. So, I'm going to turn it over to him at this time.

Thank you, Council President. Uh this morning, I'm joined by Council Members Cotton and Williams. Uh Council Member Huffman is excused from this committee this morning. We have one item before us. Uh this is a presentation of the Wakom County Incarceration and uh Prevention and Reduction Task Force 2026 annual report.

The task force co-chairs Heather Flareity and Peter Frasier will present the group's 2026 annual report this morning. The report discusses the major topics before the task force and its committees over the past year.

Reports the work of the uh justice project oversight and planning committee and reports on progress towards the goals of the justice project implementation plan. And here to take us through are uh Heather Flity and Peter Frasier.

Good morning and welcome. >> Thank you so much. We really appreciate being here. Good morning, council members, council president, and mayor Lond. I'm Peter Frasier, and with my co-chair, Heather Flity, we lead the Wakom County Incarceration Prevention and Reduction Task Force.

This is the first time we have come before you as co-chairs. So, let's begin with what the task force is and just as importantly, what it isn't. Uh the task force was created by the county council in 2015 to continually review the county's criminal justice and behavioral health programs and to recommend how to safely reduce the incarceration of people struggling with mental illness and chemical dependency, minimize jail use by pre-trial defendants who can safely be released, and advanced intervention and prevention.

Under state law, we are also serving as the county's law and justice council. And in 2023, when voters approved the justice project, they gave us the specific charge to monitor progress on the 15 projects of the implementation plan and to help our partners align their resources to accomplish them.

The task force does not build the jail. We do not run diversion programs and we do not deliver uh the treatment. We do not hold the budget. What we are is a table, a large and an important table. We are the one place in Wakom County where the sheriff and the prosecutor, public defenders and judges, the cities and the county, behavioral health and housing providers, tribal partners, people who have lived through the system and citizens like Heather and myself um all sit down together.

Our job is to convene them to keep long-term vision steady across elections and leadership changes and to form the subcommittees and workg groupoups that turn hard problems into clear consensus recommendations we bring to the county council, the executive and the community as a whole.

And before we go further, thank you. Bellingham hasn't just signed the interlocal agreement. You've been one of the most active builders at this table. When state funding fell away, you kept the uh alternative response team alive, directing your own sales tax dollars and winning a grant that nearly doubled the city's share.

Your you fund community court, teen court, real alternatives to prosecution. You put $2.5 million into 37 new supportive housing studios for adults living with chronic mental health conditions. You place behavioral health staff right in the public library where people in crisis already come.

And you've committed at least $10 million over the next five years to diversion and behavioral health. That is more than most cities around our country do and we are grateful. So, where are we headed?

Towards something genuinely hopeful. A community that is safer because it is healthier and more just because it is wiser about who truly needs a jail cell. We're working under real fiscal constraints.

Costs are up. Revenues are tighter than the original plan. But constraint is also clarity. And it sharpens the vision down to three things. keeping all people safe and accountable both in the community and inside our jail and behavioral care center.

Holding open a door to treatment and care whenever someone is ready to walk through it and going upstream so that fewer people ever reach that door in the first place. And who is this for? It is for the roughly 4,000 people among us who cycle through the justice system again and again.

The vast majority of those booked in to our jail are struggling with substance use and mental health needs. Our jail has become by default the largest behavioral health facility in the county. And within that group, a couple hundred individuals drive most of our cost and most of the crisis.

That is what the whole effort is meant to change. And the behavioral care center is where so much of this comes together. The model is inspiring and genuinely innovative. We adapted it from a program in Nashville and we will open one of the first of its kind, an out of custody place where someone in crisis can be met with treatment instead of a jail cell.

Because it sits outside of custody, Medicaid can cover most of the cost of running it, which is how we keep it sustainable. The behavioral care center has every chance of becoming a great example across the state.

and how counties can make swift advances in treatment and real prosecutorial diversion. One idea is worth planning before we turn to our goals. For years, part of the conversation has been around booking restrictions.

What the jail will and won't take. Perhaps that frame could be seen a different way. Not fewer bookings or more bookings, but every booking meaning something. Think of it as booking connections rather than booking restrictions.

Our law enforcement partners shall always have the tools that they need. No officers ever turned away when someone needs to be booked. And at the same time, every booking becomes a connection to screening, to care, to accountability, and to making victims whole.

Our three goals. So the task force has set three goals and our members worked um have worked them hard all year. First the shape uh to shape best practices for designing and operating the new jail and behavioral care center.

Second to build a real way to measure whether the implementation plan is working and third to strengthen and evaluate our diversion programs. The work that keeps people out of the system in the first place.

All three matter and all three uh run together. So goal one, the jail and uh we'll talk about the buyback. The project is in programming right now, the stage that comes before design and construction where we decide what the building must do and what happens to a person inside it.

And last week, the task force did exactly what it exists to do. We brought our partners together, reviewed the jail program, reached consensus, and sent the county council and executive rankordered feedback to guide what's called the buyback.

The list of things cut to meet the budget that can be added back if found funding is found. There is real good in the program that we have um in in our programming currently. dedicated behavioral health beds, screening office at intake, added capacity.

Our concern is two things that were left out and both cost more to live without than to build. The first is a second courtroom. One shared courtroom is a bottleneck that uh lengthens how long people wait in jail for a hearing and a and length of stay, not the crime rate is what actually sizes the jail.

The second is the rapid resource center for re-entry because re-entry isn't an afterthought. It's the whole point. These are not someday decisions. The buyback choices close on November 1st and the program acceptance vote is coming up soon, August 11th.

This is the moment to get it right. [snorts] Goal two, the data and our clearest ask to you. The second goal is where partnership with this council matters most. For all the effort at our table, we still cannot prove that our spending produces the outcomes our neighbors need because our data systems are antiquated and were never built to talk to one another.

And sharing that information is quite literally the job our job as the law and justice council. with our partners. The task force now has a real measurement plan and an interim public dashboard. But we still cannot do the one thing that matters the most.

Follow a single person anonymized across our justice and behavioral health systems to see where they fall through the gaps and spend where it does the most good. That is not possible today and it needs to be.

Last year, the task force promised to come back to the county council with recommendations and an ask and this is it. One funded position to coordinate the data across our whole county, city um and agencies.

The task force has recommended twice it is a small cost that keeps us from wasting the large ones. The difference between hoping we are doing good and knowing it. So, we'll close where we began with gratitude and a request for a continued partnership.

The buyback is the county's decision and the city's voice for a second courtroom and a rapid resource center and its support for the state's re-entry funding request could or would carry real weight before the window closes on November 1st.

on the data position. We are asking the county to fund it and the city's support would help carry it so we can finally prove what works. And in the interlocal negotiations, renegotiations ahead where the city does not have a direct hand, stay with us on the promise beneath the whole plan that as budgets tighten, we keep funding treatment, diversion, housing, and not just the building.

So, the rest is the work and it's yours and ours and all of us together. Thank you. Uh Heather will take you into the numbers and what's driving our jail and the decisions in front of us and you and we will welcome your questions.

>> Oh, >> hi everybody. Thank you so much, Peter. Um, thanks for having us here today. And I just want to acknowledge a few people up here too. Councilman Hamill, you've been a tremendous important leader in all of this work for over a decade and you serve as our IPRTF co-chair of the behavioral health committee.

So, please chime in anytime um and fill in any blanks and if there's highlights or accomplishments that we don't mention, please feel free. And Councilman Lillyquist, you've also been deeply engaged for many, many years and you serve on the finance and facility advisory board.

So fill in any blanks on on that too. Um and then there are two work groups that launched this summer that I'll share a little more about. One is about the 5050 funding split and the intentions around that and Mayor Kim Lond, thank you for participating in that.

Um and Forest Longman as um a proxy. It's been really great to have those workg groupoup moments to kind of talk through the complexities of the policies. Um I'm Heather Flity. I'm really honored to serve as the co-chair of the incarceration prevention and reduction task force and I also get to say that I've been involved for a long time in this work.

I've done my own independent studies. Um I get to also serve as the executive director of the Chucket Health Foundation and there's quite an overlap when we look at what creates a healthy and safe community.

So some of this is my day job and some of this is my volunteer capacity. Um and Peter's really right. We do need to fund that data position. so that you can verify all the things I'm going to tell you today because they come with just an independent analysis.

But I will say um it's robust and I have looked at 10 years of um booking data spreadsheets. I have looked at we do have an aging report that is sent out periodically from the sheriff that uh has what cases are have stayed for how many length how many days inside the jail.

Um, I have looked at on the city of Bellingham uh, police website, you can download call activity, right? So, I've looked at about 18 months of call activity and compared that to the jail booking. So, I can give you at least a starting place of understanding, you know, I know I understand booking restrictions is a really high priority for the cities.

So, it's hard though to start to answer, well, how many people are not booked that should be? And so comparing all of these different data sets and no one data set um tells you the whole story. There is not a human- centered, you know, person following the human through this system.

And that is a couple of things I've really come to understand about the system. My background is community health. um is that we're working with really complex humans that have complex backgrounds and we're working in a really complicated system where there's 25 different decision makers, none of whom are in charge of each other.

And so that the point of the IPRTF is that collaborative table that can set the shared goals that then everybody sees what role they play in their decisions that add up. And one thing that's interesting that I'll point to about that is that a few years ago during the pandemic, booking restrictions were the tightest, right?

We were not booking people and we saw impacts downtown and you heard about that a lot, right? Sheriff Tanksley uh was elected and he actually started to address that really well and he implemented a system and you can see in the um annual jail bookings in 2023 it was 9,791 bookings 2024 10,391 2025 12,14.

So, our bookings increased about 3,000 bookings and that's just in our current jail, current capacity and managing booking restrictions really differently. So, I think that uh what we're also seeing in 2025 is the pent up backlog because the court processing didn't happen as um efficiently during COVID, right?

And so, there were a lot of warrants. A third of those bookings, those 12,000 are warrantonly bookings. and we can go through what actually uh that's another data set I've analyzed deeply is the jail use report and you can see what charges are booked year-over-year and some of the charges that increased exponentially were department of corrections hold somebody with a parole violation disorderly conduct and um the controlled possession simple possession which makes sense because we the we pretty much recriminalized possession of drug use um and now we're booking people for that.

So um and what I wanted to say is that collaborative table a few years ago during the pandemic um continuences were were persistently brought up as why are court processing delays happening and there was a you know a sentiment of people are asking for continuences.

The lawyers are asking for too many continuences on these cases and I did a deep dive into what does that mean? What does that look like? Um and the conversation really moved toward how do we focus on this on court processing?

The prosecutor's office changed their practices, the public defenders change their practices. And it's really comes down to that what gets paid attention to gets managed, right? And our court processing improved.

So our median length of stay now is 26 days. That's really pretty good. But we're sizing a jail. If you, one of the reports that came out this last year, um, the length of stay needs to be managed really, really well for us to not be in five or 10 years in another position where we're saying, "Oh my gosh, the jail's full." The length of stay, the goal is to manage it to 19 days or less on average.

So that's a takeaway from some of the comments I'm sharing with you today is that when you know the city of Bellingham is about 44% or so of the jail bookings, you're a high utilizer and that makes sense because you carry most of the population and you have the downtown core.

So your practices make a huge impact on the system overall, right? And so when policies and opportunities and programs come up to support reducing that length of stay, I think that's a good thing to really consider and like rigorously analyze.

Is this going to help us and what creates more public safety? So a few accomplishments I want to go back to the beginning a little bit that I want to make sure we mention. Um, Peter led a work group this year that was amazing and really focused on the prosecutorial diversion that will be required for the outof custody behavioral care center to operate well.

And so that is the power of a table like IPRTF. That's not a new concept to all of you. That multistakeholder table where bringing all of the decision makers together to say what can the prosecutor agree to divert to the behavioral care center that somebody that normally would be in custody, what's the criteria?

What are the pathways? Who needs to be involved in those handoffs? And uh they recently released their addendum B for how many people could be eligible for diversion out of the jail. and they extrapolated to about 1,800 people a year could be diverted to this new behavioral care center that's built.

So that's a giant accomplishment and outcome and those conversations would not have happened unless they were convened by the incarceration task force likely maybe but we certainly helped and catalyzed.

Um, also as you know, the county secured a new site for the jail, and I think there's a lot of advantages to that site being where it is. The IPRTF didn't have a direct role in that, but I think it's worth stating for the record.

Um, the sequential intercept model was refreshed this year. That was a top 10 goal of the incarceration task force. That tool is really important because it looks at um all the intercepts, right, of pre-arrest, arrest, um in custody, diversion, out of custody, re-entry, and and um maps.

What are the resources we have in our community? What are the resources we need? And often what is the coordination actually in between that would really um maximize the opportunity to support better human outcomes.

Um, so that was updated and refreshed and is a tool that the community can use for looking at what do we need to invest in next. Um, and then also the county executive's office was able to secure funding and I think the city of Bellingham was part of this with the True Blood um, and the new supportive housing which is a persistent need and is really critical to somebody's success upon re-entry.

Right? if they have that housing support. We need to do more, but we always want to celebrate the steps we get to take and accomplishments. And then um an accomplishment I wanted to make sure to mention that Councilman Hamill is a significant leader on is the is bringing Dwellach to our community and the work around treatment and harm reduction.

And what I've come to understand about the jail population as well is that it's really quite a bell curve. There are a lot of people, in fact, about half of the people that get booked in our jail that stay two days or less.

And our top two offenses are DUIs and um uh domestic disputes and domestic violence. Serious offenses. Often people will get booked for one to two days um and that's enough. And they say, "I'm never driving drunk again." And jail served that purpose, right?

And they don't come back. There's also a tale of people who stay a long time in our jail and those cases are complicated and often very serious crimes. Um, and then there's a whole bunch in the middle that have an overlap, not always everything, but an overlap often of poverty, addiction, untreated behavioral health, unsupported uh, disorders or homelessness and that churn of going through the system.

And I think the the middle is where we often want to focus on what can we do to help stop this churn and help somebody get on a better path. Um so a couple of things I want to draw your I'll pause there for just a second.

Anything anyone wants to ask >> I think we'll wait till the end. >> Okay. Um just to give you a little uh texture too to the bookings from 2024 to 2025. Some highlights. There are room there still is room for improvement on the daily bookings.

Um the failure to appear for a driving with a suspended license in the third degree bookings for that grew 283%. There's a lot of court procedural warrant administrative um important things that lead to bookings and having alternatives to what that consequence could be could actually be really good for the human outcome of not having somebody need to be in jail if they're not posing a threat to society and also the um expense outcome right for the system.

Uh, controlled substance possessions bookings grew 357%. The DOC detainers grew 318%. Um, FTA for criminal trespass grew 108% and theft in the third degree grew 91%. And disorderly conduct went from 0 to 59 bookings, zero bookings in 2024, 59 in 2025, and decent exposure went from zero to 22.

Um, looking through all of the Bellingham call log, one thing I think we can be really proud of and shows the efforts that the city does so well, 0% you had in the last four months 583 behavioral health and crisis calls out of thousands, 0% of them resulted in a booking.

That's amazing. That is really good work. And then the question is if we had that human- centered ability to attract somebody, what was the outcome then? Where did they go? How did they get support if they needed that?

Right? But that I think that's a success to celebrate. Um anything I'm going to go into what the work groups are up to and why. So far so good. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Proceed. >> Um so one of the uh the Pascal planners report, right?

the the county has really been deliberating on what's in front of them with the um decisions around jail budget, jail size. Um and one of the planning reports highlighted that if you if our length of stay grows to 29 days or more, they estimate that in 2050 we will need 700 jailbs.

If um if we can manage to a 19-day average, we need 458 beds. Currently, what's being presented is about a 480 bed jail. And I won't speak for the county and all of the decisions they're making. Um but I will just say on the IPRTF side that that really really puts into focus why managing length of stay is going to be very critical for the next forever.

And um and so looking at the opportunities for how can we do that better and knowing that 90% on average 90% of the people in our jail are pre-trial too. So that also adds a um complexity for how do we manage length of stay there.

Um so in the spring the county council approved a budget cap resolution based on the finance and facility advisory board recommendations around um what the you know looking at the expenses increasing the interest rates all of the variables of financials.

Um, and so the budget cap is 205 million. And along with that though, because that complicated what the policy intentions were around the 2023 ordinance for public health and safety that uh is implementing the full justice implementation plan.

The county council also asked for two work groups of the IPRTF to be developed for the summer work to really focus on how do we and when do we achieve that 50/50 intention and what does that actually mean?

How do we define that? And then there's an average daily booking and length of stay work group that is looking at what are based on who is in our jail and the needs they have, what are the real opportunities for reducing that length of stay number.

Um, I think I'll close my comments with there is great work being done with the judges and the pre-trial risk assessment subgroup on looking at um where their tool hasn't been as effective as they had hoped.

And that's highlighted in your annual report too um your big PDF that you got. And uh we really support that work because it will hopefully also support that reduction of length of stay. Um, and then on that programming buyback, that's another decision coming up to to county council very quickly on approving the jail program and layout and design, which is really important because it's kind of a once in a generation opportunity to shape a significant capital investment for our community that can lead to a lot of increased public safety and public health if we get it really good, you know.

Um, and so a few of the uh um other additions that the incarceration task force talked about, if council has the support and the funding at the end of the day, for sure preserving that second courtroom, that would also help keep length of stay down for those first appearances to happen for all the municipalities, for Lynden, for Blaine Everson, for all of them to be able to do first appearances timely and in person.

Ideally, that really supports also helping length of stay um funding and building that rapid resource center at some scale because that handoff and re-entry PE mo pretty much everybody who goes to our jail will come out and so that's that was that whole point of the justice implementation plan is what happens on that handoff out.

Um also attorney and visitation space was something that came up. So that uh currently sometimes attorneys are waiting 45 to 90 minutes for their client and that's a you know that's a high salary for the wait time.

So figuring out how to really um make that efficient pairing those behavioral health beds that's a that is a win. I think the current programming is saying that there will be about 120 behavioral health beds in the jail.

That's a that's a significant increase. Um, but pairing that with the warm handoffs because some of those people that need those supports might only be there for three days. That might not be a meaningful intervention.

So, what's the handoff when people leave jail? Um, so that's a lot of information and some highlights from the year and some of our deep dives. We'd love to hear anything from anyone who's participated in those conversations or questions.

Okay, committee. My first comment is basically up here. [laughter] I'm not going to get into the specific weeds, but um I'm very glad to see that you haven't lost the perspective of creating a system that focuses on re-entry into society as opposed to just focusing on punishment.

Um and and of course that work and that development is um always subject to the resources you have. But that being said, the concept that you're having that you presented about the buyback concept and looking at things like that to say basically we can't do this right now even though some members of our public say well if you can't do this now don't do anything.

when when in fact I believe that every development in this world like this and anything is always subject to a what you have then to to do it. Third, do you have a long view of this? Meaning in 15 years or 10 years, we want to be here and how can we get there over over time?

It's nothing that can be done in a month or in and I'm glad to hear that you are that the committee is looking at it from that lens now as opposed to okay we're done here it is okay we can go home now this is dealing with humans and when when we're dealing with human people that have a lot of problems in their life for whatever reason and I've had family members that are had to do that.

It's best to give them a way to deal with it. So, I'm very very supportive of the work that you are doing and so I just wanted to let you know that committee further questions council members council member go ahead council member lquist and cotton then after >> yeah go ahead [clears throat] >> thank you I don't serve on this committee but as as Heather pointed out I've been involved in this for quite a few years Peter Heather thank you very much for the excellent presentation I wrote down some word for word quotes you were both so well spoken um I I always try to look for like where is the most uh reward ward going to come for effort.

Where where's the biggest thing we need to do? And luckily, we've done some of those. We have alternative response now. We have therapeutic courts. We have prosecu prosecutorial diversion. So, we're not feeding people into the system the way we used to, and we're getting them out of the system when appropriate in ways we didn't.

And so, we've made so much progress. But there's what's now the the pain point in my view. and and I think you sort of have agreed. So, for example, um one of the buybacks is a second court in the jail.

So, those arraignments going to occur very quickly. And in the various committees I'm involved in, uh it's been it's been clear that having an extra court speeds up uh the entire process f you know, quicker justice.

Um but it also leads to like not just a reduction in the number of people who stay in jail but a reduction in just the operating costs of when they even are in jail. So it is a huge cost savings um therefore it's worth stretching to find um is it and then I want to also pivot.

There's a a really good quote on page 12 of the report that talks about jail capacity analysis also found that adding one superior court judge, so this is another the judge. You you may have a courtroom, but you need a judge.

Adding one superior court judge was estimated to reduce average daily bed need by approximately 80 beds. What it costs to run those 80 beds and what it costs to build those 80 beds is in the millions of dollars.

So there's cost savings there. So what I'm my current belief is that what rises to the top is a need for we want county did add a spear court judge not too long ago is adding yet another spear court judge and yet another uh court venue for this to occur.

That rises the top for me in either your opinion or the IPRF RPTF's opinion does that rise to the top is is there an opinion you can express on that question? If I may, um I'm not speaking on behalf of the IPRTF, though I think this would be a great question for us to discern together.

Um just because of my privilege and opportunity around that average length of stay work group. I've I've dug through the um the courts and some of the data around that with that aging report. superior court.

I think it's really interesting because there's the people who stay a long time in our jail, what we need to do to help reduce that length of stay. And when I say that, I'm not saying just let everybody out, right?

Like there's accountability and safety always. And then what's the opportunity for a path forward? Um, and there are a lot of administrative delays that happen. And there are things we could do differently like considering collateral consequences.

So there's the superior court piece, but then all of the municipal courts add up quite a bit. And so I think that to Peter's point, having a data person that has that full system view would help us actually give you a real answer to that question versus my ane it's not it's more than anecdotal, but it shouldn't just be me looking through aging reports and coming to conclusions, right?

And I am really smart, but you should verify some of these things. Um, but uh, for example, district court is another one, right? where they see a lot of failure to appear warrants. And what I learned recently is that on driving violations, the statute is really clear.

You cannot deviate from the 30-day 30-day 30-day. So, if they have a failure to appear, I'm going to get the technicalities wrong, but on like a driving with a suspended license or a DUI and then you didn't show up to court for all of the reasons, you just might get a mandatory 90-day sentence, even if it's been a year and you have a job and you have housing and you haven't gotten in trouble again.

And if there was the opportunity for the coll and other jurisdictions across the nation have have done this where there's somebody that says, "What are the collateral consequences? What does safety look like?

And could there be a consequence? Because it's not that we don't want to have consequences. We have to have rules. But what if that sentencing could be an alternative sentence for community service for 90 days instead of go to jail, lose your housing, lose your job, right?

So that's the kind of work that I think is ahead of us. That's the hopeful what does public safety how do we actually get because that causes so much disruption and then we're back to not even zero negative one on that progress for that person right so I wouldn't lose sight of the municipal courts some of those misdemeanor charges and that the flow and churn because even those two-day stays it's still corrections time processing administrative courts it's still a lot of labor and uh financial need and expenditure and then there's a whole set of strategies around the length of stay.

So just to give you a little picture doesn't answer your question directly. I and I will say too that that judge when I fact when I kind of truth check that sentence you pulled out about the superior court judge and that 80day or 80 bed reduction.

How that is so significant. Can we interrogate though what else did what else happened? The prosecutors changed things. The public defenders changed things. Judges might have made different decisions.

Is there a standardized learning that we could keep up doing that so it isn't dependent on okay now it's a new public defender. They might do things a little bit different, right? And so I would love to have that capacity to dive deep into well wow like we want to save these these bed days and also by the way crime rates are going down right and so this is a good thing to add these things together let's standardize the success and help people replicate it across all of the courts >> you already answered my question.

So I'll ask another um uh as the as interlocal comes back to us for revision, what advice do you have in terms of um yeah doing what we can to honor voter intent and um and especially yeah if you could talk talk me through the opportunities with those buybacks and the context of that deadline is before the legislative session.

So what yeah how does how does this play out um in the best way possible? I'll start with some thoughts and you anyone can add in. Marilyn, you might have thoughts too of course. Um I think one thing to share is that the 50/50 workg group is talking about exactly that.

So I don't want to get out in front of them and there's a report coming in I think late August or early September around really what that that group is focused on is well what actually counts. We didn't really define this, right?

We said behavioral health in the campaign. We talked about this being 50% for the jail building and then 50% for the other 14 projects of that justice implementation plan. Um the financial variables are everchanging and so the most conservative uh projections show you know 16% to behavioral health in 2030 versus when the projections were much more optimistic.

it we could reach 50% in 2030. Um, and so I think I've been thinking about it too as is it really I mean the 50/50 is a value statement. There wasn't there wasn't financial analysis done on well if the jail's going to cost 205 million we need to spend 205 million on these things right it's really about how are we achieving the goals of the justice implementation plan and that recognition that a jail on its own is not probably going to get us the public safety outcomes we all really want right and so that reframe of what is like Councilman Williams was saying what is the pacing and the scaling and what's the step we can take today next year in three years and the prioritization of that um and memorializing that in whatever way is appropriate in the ILA I think could be a really great thing because hopefully in 15 years or 20 years we're on to the next challenges and opportunities of our lives and we want to make sure that the next leadership bench has the intentions really clear right in these core documents of ordinance es and interlocals.

Um but on the flip side too I would say that in the initial interlocal there was a commitment that there would be no more booking restrictions for the cities. Right? That was a serious commitment and very important.

And I think also having more definition around what does that mean? Right? Because something I say that drives some people crazy is if you take that to the nth degree, literally that could mean that tomorrow we need to be able to book 10,000 active warrants.

And I don't think anyone thinks that that's what we need. You know, we don't need a 10,000 bed jail. So what does that actually mean? And and from my perspective, it it's that booking connections idea and what are the things we can invest in so that law enforcement always has the tools they need that they're never left with with not an option.

That there's a handoff somewhere, whether it's a jail or somebody else at the front door saying, "Okay, we're going to take care of this, right?" And that no matter what, victims are taken care of and that there's public safety addressed.

and that there's also a layer of what are the root causes of this um crime that's happening and is there something that we could meet a need that would change this or is this you know the jail is the right path.

So um the IPRTF also did write up those five priorities that I rattled off. Uh there wasn't a formal vote but there was just a general consensus. I'd love to take your question back and have a more formal conversation.

Please come to the IPRTF meetings or send questions because it is supposed to be a body of recommending things, you know, and it is a really strong cross stakeholder. Mayor Lun's on that, Chief Mertzig has been an incredible participant.

Sheriff Tank of course, um the prosecutors, the public defenders. So, I don't want to quite get ahead of anything formally and I'm that's where I would What would you Anything you guys want to add? >> You're good.

>> Okay. or correct. Tell me where I'm wrong. >> I don't think you're wrong anywhere. Um, but I think one of the failures of the previous interlocal was just how prescriptive it was. We created a very specific math equation when we didn't fully understand all the variables.

And so how do we meet our lofty goals and have a focus on the outcomes for where we want to go in a way that creates enough practical pragmatic space to get there? So I think that's just the one piece I would add.

>> Committee further questions council council member. >> Uh yeah thank you uh for this one. Just a comment on the 50/50 split. Um, jails are very expensive. We're going to be forced to spend a lot of money in jails, but I think more than half of our effort and more than half of our results can come from behavioral health.

That doesn't necessarily mean mean that we spend half of our money to get those results. So, sort of I think what you were saying, we want the results. Let's focus on those and spend what we need to get the results.

My question has to do with was referred to early and then later in the report about a pilot program for prosecutionial prosecutorial diversion to a residential treatment facility and I think it refers to only and exclusively the behavioral care center which does not yet exist and won't exist for maybe two years.

So this is a pilot program which does not yet exist for a facility which does not yet exist. Am I understanding that correctly? Okay. Okay. And so the idea though is as soon as that is on board, the prosecutor's office will need to be prepared to start using it.

And the idea is that they would start using it as a pilot basis. They wouldn't be committed to it. They will try it out for a few years. Okay. Then I understood it correctly. I really look forward to that.

And one of the things that I appreciate about what I'm seeing on the facilities and finance advisory board is a clear willingness by the county administration to advance the behavioral care center on its own timeline as fast as we can go and the JO on its own timeline as fast as that process can go.

They're not linked to each other. Whichever one gets across the finish line, you know, gets across the line when it gets across the line. And neither of those is on the slow track. They're both on the fast track.

And even though those fast tracks are still a year or two or three in length or maybe four, I don't know. I'm hoping for lower. Um anyway, so I appreciate understanding better about this pilot program and look forward to the behavioral care center being built.

>> Any further questions? >> Okay, [clears throat] seeing none, I've got a just a few points here with an eye towards the time. Um Heather Flity, you asked me to fill in any kind of blanks that you may have missed.

I just one that's that stands out to me is um we do this work uh with by being informed by people who have lived experience and [clears throat] recently at the uh the JPOT meeting we had I think it was like six or eight folks that came and talked about what they had gone through and to a person every one of them had some kind of substance use disorder that drove the the crimes that they they committed and you'd listed off you'd rattle off a few those and the [clears throat] ones that you identified outside of um driving while license suspended heard their their crimes of poverty and that and that's what those folks were articulating [clears throat] and describing.

So, I just want to make sure that we we're all on the same page when it comes to we are trying to do this with as much information as possible. Um, I also want to [clears throat] underscore the um with the the relative opacity of the of our court system, it's often hard to see the value [clears throat] of why that second court is so important.

And you brought up some of those um those reasons here today. um average [clears throat] length of stay, average daily population. Um those all drive costs. Um and Heather had brought up um even a difference of 10 beds would require almost doubling the the size of the facility, which it will not happen because there's not there's not the dollars for that.

Um so one of my questions would be what does it look like for transportation costs if if that second court does not come through? um who pays for the the transportation when the when the deputies escort a person to courts of limited jurisdiction including Bellingham and then our small cities here where does that cost it's not free so who who pays for that one you don't have to answer that today by the way I'm just kind of putting this out to the universe [clears throat] um but one um question I do have I took a lot of notes here so I'm trying to make sure I'm getting everything uh uh covered here is um how does the how do new programs like anchor That's the one that you were referring to that coming out of the prosecutor's office.

That's an intensive inpatient uh program that would depend on the BCC, the behavioral care center being up and operating and and running. How does that work? And then there's a new program that is called pathways and that exists within the jail facility or will and would [clears throat] treat I think startup first year maybe 80 people who are who are there for um probably 20 to 40 days somewhere in that in that range that could could be a part of that program.

How did those programs affect what the the task force is doing? And then there's another program. It's a data program called Civic Informer [clears throat] which collects um fire and police data for city of Bellingham.

And that you can see the incidents right there live essentially. So how do those things affect [snorts] the work that the task force is doing? >> That's a lot, Dan. >> Uh your best. >> Yeah. [laughter] I I do want to rush to say that it has been made clear to us just over the last week that um the the county may well have a solution to the second courtroom.

And I think um that that needs to be said. I don't know what that is, but uh they are um working they're seriously working on that. Um the you you brought up uh civic inform. It's a uh a data program um that is a a daily feed of what is going on.

Um, but we need to have a even deeper um data program that allows us to, as I said in my remarks, be able to follow individuals through. and I will through the system anonymized and to help us with our antiquated um legacy data systems to be able to understand uh how and and make sure that each dollar and uh each hour of our energies go to the things that are making the most difference.

I would like to say that um I spent most of my career as a usability person and a customer researcher and I have um in all my work it is so clear to me that it real change happens individual to individual and when we can uh make really good decisions and as these large institutions be able to put uh for instance Um, council person Williams was talking about re-entry and how important it is having peer support, an individual who is following someone through the jail and is there at the door when they come out.

There is nothing more important than that to help them uh with the services that our institution is providing and have it individuals working with other individuals. That's where the real the real meat happens and the real change happens.

and each and every program that you listed, all of the things that we're um all of the many programs that we're working on throughout the county and the city and uh are really um come down to that uh clearing out hurdles so that individuals can work with individuals to make those life changes.

It's really about 4,000 people, maybe a couple hundred who are going through the most. And uh to the degree that we can focus on those folks, give them what they need will make the largest difference.

Any further questions? I'd like to thank the chairs for for taking time today to present. Uh it's I think it's super important that the council understands the breadth and depth of what the task force does and all the committees.

If you look at the the [clears throat] packet, there's there are dozens and dozens of people that that serve on on this task force and and these uh subcommittees. So, thank you for coming today. I appreciate it.

And with that, the committee. >> Thank you very much. And again, thank you to presenters for joining us and all of your ongoing work. It's greatly appreciated. The partnership is huge. So um so with that we end our morning committee meetings.