June 1, 2023 Dena Jensen
This week the Whatcom County Council put out a news flash announcement requesting that community members provide feedback to the Incarceration Prevention and Reduction Task Force about the draft version of the Justice Project Implementation Plan. I sent an email in today that will be included in this blog post.
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June 1, 2023 Dena Jensen
Here’s some information relevant to funding for recommended actions related to behavioral health services and facilities, among other things, in the draft Justice Project Implementation Plan. (Link to the draft plan: https://www.whatcomcounty.us/…/Implementation-Plan… ) Whatcom County’s Incarceration Prevention and Reduction Task Force is seeking feedback from community members about the draft implementation plan, now through June 11, 2023.
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May 30, 2023 Dena Jensen
In this post – which will be a work in progress during the course of this year – you’ll find the content of Bellingham City Council’s Committee of the Whole meeting minutes that have been approved so far for 2023, here in one place. This allows folks to search on things like key words, topics, dates, public hearings, and people’s names. For each meeting date, a link is also provided near the top of that edition of minutes to access media associated with that particular meeting.
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May 21, 2023 Dena Jensen
In this post you will find the content of the meeting summaries of the Whatcom County Incarceration Prevention and Reduction Task Force that are currently available so far for 2023. This is a period when the focus of the Task Force has more prominently centered on the intersection of their work with Whatcom County’s Justice Project.
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May 4, 2023 Dena Jensen
The quote on this post was part of a brief comment given by our current Whatcom County Executive near the end of a March 15, 2023 discussion about adopting public comment guidelines for the Incarceration Prevention and Reduction Task Force (IPRTF) a couple of months ago.
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May 1, 2023 Dena Jensen
Over the next few months, our community will have a more intensive opportunity to review and speak out about the process (and outcome of that process) by which Whatcom County Council has come to accept recommendations, and potentially propose funding, for a new jail along with mental and behavioral health services related to incarceration and reducing and preventing incarceration.
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April 24, 2023 Dena Jensen
Here’s something to be aware of. The current Whatcom County Undersheriff, Doug Chadwick, who also is one of the candidates running to replace Bill Elfo as Sheriff in the November 2023 election, indicated that he wants to ensure that the County will be able to double the size of a proposed new jail in the years ahead and favors building on a property that would accommodate the size of a horizontal design, i.e. the property purchased for a jail in Ferndale years ago.
Continue readingApril 20, 2023 Dena Jensen
April 20, 2023 Dena Jensen
On April 10, 2023, five out of seven members of the Bellingham City Council voted to approve an ordinance making it illegal to publicly use controlled substances in their city. Council Members took the action after amending the original ordinance which had been presented by Mayor Seth Fleetwood about a month earlier. Enforcement will guarantee that some people living outside will be exposed to increased scrutiny and pursuit by the Bellingham Police Department.
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April 14, 2023 Dena Jensen
I’ll try to give a rough overview of the Bellingham City Council Members’ discussion on Monday, April 10, 2023 in their Public Health, Safety, and Justice Committee meeting about potentially proceeding forward to approve their ordinance to make public use of controlled substances a crime. (I haven’t gotten a chance yet to listen to the brief review of community courts which was the second item on their agenda).
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April 13, 2023 Dena Jensen
For some folks who may have missed the public comment of the Executive Director for Northwest Youth Services, Jason McGill, at Monday’s 4/10/23 Bellingham City Council meeting, I am posting it here. It was the second to the last comment in a nearly two hour public comment session that night. It was fitting to have his comment and one from a student and renter who is on rental assistance from Northwest Youth Services close it out.
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noisy waters northwest 
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