Despite behavioral health, substance abuse alternatives, Whatcom needs a new jail | Opinion

In 2015 Whatcom County committed to re-thinking incarceration.

This was a pragmatic choice. As community leaders, we had to recognize that increasing and maintaining public safety can’t be achieved with arrests and convictions as the primary solutions to crime.

The Whatcom County Council created the Incarceration Prevention and Reduction Task Force to help lead the county away from a system focused primarily on incarceration, toward one investing in equity, public health and community safety.

In the decades prior, the overall Whatcom County population grew two and a half times — but the number of people in jail grew almost ninefold, from 45 to 391 on any given day.

We now have a record of achievement.

This task force, a coalition of community members, service providers, elected officials, court officers, and law enforcement, looked at the existing human services in the community, as well as existing and potential programs that address causes of incarceration.

In many cases, people who wound up in jail faced underlying challenges including mental health and substance use disorder that we often failed to respond to in timely, effective ways.

When an incident happened, people with such challenges were historically taken to jail or the emergency room — not because they were a continuing threat to public safety but because there were no alternatives.

The Incarceration Prevention and Reduction Task Force began to discuss both new approaches and how to build upon existing programs, such as homeless outreach and crisis intervention teams, behavioral health specialized law enforcement officers, in other cities and counties.

Today, there are a number of newly developed diversion programs and response systems such as the Bellingham Police Department’s Alternative Response Team, and the soon-to-be-launched Whatcom County Sheriff’s Co-Responder Team. These efforts partner specially trained law enforcement and health, safety and community-based organizations to support people who have multiple low-level criminal offenses as the result of behavioral health and substance use.

Increasingly, law enforcement officers work in concert with behavioral health professionals to help people find immediate pathways to the right services — rather than incarceration.

Understanding the needs of first responders, especially law enforcement officers, is critical to creating facilities and services that can help community members avoid cycling through the system at great cost to themselves and the public.

In 2019, we opened the doors to a new crisis stabilization center, now known as the Anne Deacon Center for Hope. The programs at this new center more than double the capacity of the County’s old crisis facility, providing more access to adults in need of mental health or withdrawal management services, helping them restore and stabilize their health — and avoid jail.

That’s not just better for them. That’s better for responders. That’s better for our community as a whole.

Now we must improve the jail itself.

The reality is, not everyone can or should avoid jail. In those cases where jail is necessary, we need to use incarceration as an opportunity to provide comprehensive services to help inmates stabilize their lives, prevent future incarceration and rejoin their community safely and with purpose.

In 2022, the County Council convened the Stakeholder Advisory Committee, which included members of the task force, to examine and make recommendations for next steps.

That committee released recommendations that would continue our efforts to invest in community safety and wellness.

They determined that our community needs a new jail designed to reflect best practices for safety for those who work and visit; a jail that has the capacity to alleviate booking restrictions in the county and its cities.

And most importantly, a jail that is safe and humane for incarcerated individuals, with dignity and needed support services to help prevent future incarceration.

Barry Buchanan is chair of the Whatcom County Council and a member of the Incarceration Prevention and Reduction Task Force. Stephen Gockley is a resident of Bellingham and co-chair of the Incarceration Prevention and Reduction Task Force.