Update: On Tuesday, November 18, 2025, Riley Sweeney, the County’s Policy and Communications Specialist, responded to our questions.
Our Justice System Committee (JSC) has diligently followed the Whatcom County Justice Project and its Implementation Plan, which was enacted after the 2023 jail sales tax ordinance passed. While the new jail design moves forward, we have noted a distinct lack of movement on most other critical Plan goals.
To press for accountability and transparency, the JSC submitted these five pressing questions to the County on November 13, 2025, demanding they be answered at the November 20 Justice Project Engagement Workshop.
- Which elected officials are “in charge” of the Justice Project and what are their specific lines of accountability regarding budgeting, planning and evaluation? The County Executive’s Office, in collaboration with the Sheriff’s Office, Health and Community Services and numerous community partners, is leading the charge on more than a dozen projects described in the Justice Project Implementation Plan. Advisory groups such as the Incarceration Prevention and Reduction Task Force (IPRTF), Justice Project Oversight and Planning (JPOP) Committee, and the Finance and Facility Advisory Board (FFAB) provide feedback and policy recommendations. In terms of budget – like all County functions, the County Council sets the budget and the Executive plans the actions and carries it out (in coordination with Sheriff’s office, Health & Community Service, etc)
- Village Reach recommended immediately hiring a permanent project manager to coordinate the collection of justice system data and creation of a public-facing data dashboard. What is the status of hiring this full-time staff person? The County has not made any decisions towards hiring a full-time staff person to coordinate the data dashboard at this time, although work continues with current staff towards developing the potentially named “Monitoring Criminal Legal System Outcomes: from arrest to sentence completion”. [JSC note: we recommended this dashboard name.]
- Who’s responsible for making the final decision about the jail size? The IPRTF, JPOP, and FFAB will make recommendations to the County Council, which will review and appropriate funding for the construction of the new jail and behavioral care center. The jail size, scope, location, bed count, will all be articulated as part of that discussion.
- What immediate and long-term enhancements are planned for the funding and implementation of jail-alternative programs serving residents, and how are they projected to impact the need for confinement beds? That’s a bigger question because we have several programs that we are scaling up. For instance, currently the county has 1 (going to 2 FTEs in 2026) re-entry specialist working at the jail that work to ensure recently incarcerated people do not reoffend. We have also retained Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) which works with people who have frequent interactions with law enforcement stemming from substance use/mental health, homelessness or poverty challenges. This program helps connect them with resources that are difficult to access alone. In a similar vein, the County also expanded funding for GRACE which connects frequent users of EMS to a case manager to get them the support they need. Both these programs reduce the need for incarceration. We are also working to build the 23 hour crisis center which gives space for people experiencing a behavioral health or substance use crisis an opportunity to stabilize and connect with services (rather than ending up in the jail). There is also Mental Health Court and Recovery Court, which provide alternative legal pathways that prioritize healing over incarceration. Mental Health Court celebrated its tenth anniversary of operations this year and this year, our Health and Community Services started a pilot internship/practicum program with seven interns to expand the capacity of Mental Health Court, Alternative Response Team (ART) and GRACE. However, for all these programs – the need far outstrips the capacity and the Justice Project will continue to work to expand them. Currently we have several focus groups convened with social workers, medical professionals, etc, to explore the exact programming scope of the Behavioral Care Center – which treatment options would be most effective, what equipment/staffing would they require, etc. Just as with the size and scope of the jail, recommendations will be made from the IPRTF/JPOP/FFAB to the council who will then take action. To your question about how they will impact the need for confinement beds, it is difficult to precisely calculate because there are so many factors that impact the average daily jail population, including but not limited to; crime rates, state sentencing requirements, growing population, supportive services like housing/treatment options, court capacity, behavioral health staffing and so much more. So it is hard to pull out, say, mental health court, and say if we double the size of this program it will reduce the number of needed beds by this amount, because it is difficult to isolate that as a sole factor to show reduced need. Especially when you add in the fact we have booking restrictions currently in place. That said, the community has spoken loud and clear that diversion is central to our efforts of the Justice Project and we are moving forward to support those programs and document their impact.
- Will the County keep the behavioral health facility separate from the jail? To be determined. There are tradeoffs to having the jail/behavioral care center on site and tradeoffs of having it off site, but that decision has not been made yet.