October 18, 2023 Dena Jensen

[Editors Note: I submitted this commentary to Cascadia Daily News two weeks ago on October 4, 2023, after they had published a three-week string of guest commentaries praising the 2023 ballot measure sales tax to build a new Whatcom County jail. After 2 more weeks of pro-jail-tax commentaries and finally, two jail-tax related ones today, one for it and one that opposed the tax, I noticed on the two published this morning there was an editor’s note on both, saying CDN would not be publishing any more guest commentaries about the jail tax, “with most relevant issues seemingly covered.” So here’s mine right back here in my own publication with issues related to the tax that seem relevant to me.]

The January 2023 Whatcom County Justice Project Needs Assessment contains this statement: “Data show that those who live in poverty, who have behavioral health challenges, and who are people of color are more likely to be involved in the criminal legal system and jailed.” 

I want this injustice to stop.  

As of our local November 2023 election season, we have no way to tell if fresh sales tax revenue for a new jail that hasn’t yet been planned will help stop it. 

It was the County’s 2023 Needs Assessment that led to a plan approved by Whatcom County Council to pursue 15 projects, one of which is to build a jail and co-located Behavioral Health Center. 

As it stands, neither the plan, nor the ordinance for the ballot measure sales tax include the size, design, or cost of the jail with which County officials will proceed. When work began on the needs assessment, there was a sense that the La Bounty property in Ferndale could be nixed as a possible jail location. In 2016, the same County-owned property was proposed for what was characterized by former Bellingham City Council Member Tip Johnson, as a “big, flat, rural jail.” 

Johnson expressed concerns it could be targeted with becoming a regional detention center, due to proximity to property purchased by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. In fact, Homeland Security also has an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office, as well as the U.S. Customs and Border Protections’ “Bellingham station” in Ferndale.

The 2017 ballot measure for funding a jail failed.

And yet, on June 13, 2023, the County’s La Bounty parcel was selected by the Whatcom County Council members as the future jail site.   

Another thing that can contribute to discrimination that lands folks in our county jail is any violation of laws that address the ability of all people to participate equitably in open public meetings. I filed a PDC complaint to make people aware I want it to stop. 

My complaint is regarding a September 18, 2023 Whatcom County Incarceration Prevention and Reduction Task Force (IPRTF) meeting, at which there was an apparent, blatant violation of RCW 42.17A.555 by Whatcom County Executive Satpal Sidhu.  

A hybrid meeting of an IPRTF subcommittee meeting took place last month on September 7, where Executive Sidhu was visible on the Zoom screen while County Council Chair Barry Buchanan warned about the RCW, which states, in part, “No elective official nor any employee of his or her office nor any person appointed to or employed by any public office or agency may use or authorize the use of any of the facilities of a public office or agency, directly or indirectly, for the purpose of assisting a campaign for election of any person to any office or for the promotion of or opposition to any ballot proposition.”

Despite this, and another warning to IPRTF attendees during the September 18, 2023 full Task Force meeting, Executive Sidhu responded to a question not requiring him to reference his position on the sales tax ballot measure. However, he responded he had been commenting regarding the ballot measure at forums that, “I have not put my mind to if it doesn’t pass because we want to make it pass.”

The IPRTF co-chair who read the warning at the beginning of the meeting, didn’t remark on the Executive promoting the ballot measure, but before any public comment might occur, the co-chair again warned attendees against making statements promoting or opposing any ballot proposition.

While I want discriminatory actions to stop, I want to cheer on measures called for by a letter which I cosigned in late-spring of this year.  I believe it’s critical to envision the actions needed to eliminate the need for jails in our community in order for that to ever happen. Organizations that have been striving to serve our local community members for years through various measures to eliminate discrimination also signed the letter: Bellingham Tenants Union, Washington State Poor People’s Campaign, Legal Counsel for Youth and Children (LCYC), Birchwood Food Desert Fighters, Tenants Revolt, Whatcom Peace and Justice Center, The Bellingham Alternative Library, Whatcom Human Rights Taskforce, WA People’s Privacy, and Imagine No Kages. 

Among other things, the letter called for the IPRTF to urgently reduce jail population; divest from carceral systems; invest in housing, employment, education, and healing; commit to non-punitive and anti-racist measures for accountability, safety, and well-being; and fund community-led research and data-collecting to build on effectiveness of proposed alternatives.”

If we are going to ensure that community members who live in poverty, who have behavioral health challenges, and who are people of color don’t continue to disproportionally and increasingly fill whatever sized jail gets built, these are actions we need to prioritize, while we continue to insist on humane treatment of current jail occupants. The jail planning that hasn’t been done takes time. Other projects in the plan can move ahead. This will give us another year to understand more clearly what kind of jail we will be getting before we choose whether or not to fund it.