Both Councils Ignore Jail Studies / NorthwestCitizen, Juliette Davis

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Jul 15, 2017  Juliette Daniels

On Monday, July 10, The Vera Institute presented its preliminary data findings on the Whatcom County justice system at a special meeting of the Incarceration Prevention and Reduction Task Force (IPRTF). It took months for the Vera Institute to obtain the necessary data on the County Jail population in 2016, but the results confirmed stunning racial disparities in the jailed population, as well as a sizable pre-trial population that could be significantly reduced with the use of evidence-based methods of incarceration prevention. Continue reading →

Accounting of the 6/27/17 afternoon Whatcom County Council Special Committee of the Whole RE: the jail agreement / Noisy Waters Northwest

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scotw 062717 cob letter

Click the graphic to  access the complete 6/20/2017 letter from the Bellingham City Council to the Whatcom County Council

July 1. 2017  Dena Jensen

On June 27, 2017 the Whatcom County Council’s Special Committee of the Whole (made up of all seven council members) met for an afternoon session to discuss the letter they had been sent by the Bellingham City Council regarding the currently proposed Jail Facility Finance and Use Agreement.  I listened to the audio of the meeting and wrote up fairly detailed summaries of the comments and discussions during the meeting that I had posted in the comment section to a Facebook post. I thought I would share that material here to give more people access to the information, since it might come in handy over the next few weeks while the JFFUA is under consideration and the potential looms of a .2% tax to finance a new Whatcom County Jail going on the November 2017 ballot.  Here is the link to the audio for that meeting: Special Committee of the Whole PM June 27 2017.mp3

Continue reading →

6/13/2017 Public Hearing “to gather comments on the sizing of a proposed new jail in Whatcom County” / Facebook post, Noisy Waters Northwest

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June 8, 2017  Dena Jensen

At the Public Hearing at next week’s County Council Meeting on Tuesday June 13 at 7 p.m. (rally at 6:00 beforehand), it seems our comments on jail bed numbers (the number of people we envision being incarcerated in our county in the future) need to be based on all the best statistical data we have in our private-citizen hands that supports that we now have all the tools at our disposal, and will continue to have more, that will allow a reduction in the number of people we are incarcerating and that we are ready to begin a new age that abandons our failed justice system. Continue reading →

The “Illusion of Inclusion” series of reports on the Whatcom County Jail / NorthwestCitizen, Juliette Daniels

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illusion of inclusion series

Click this graphic to go to the search results page on NorthwestCitizen where you can access any of these reports.

Keep reading this series of reports on NorthwestCitizen to get an in-depth look at the history of the plan for a horizontal mega-jail. The next installment after those shown in this screenshot of search results for “Illusion of Inclusion” on NorthwestCitizen is also available on their website (it has a slightly different title). Continue reading →

Email response from Sheriff Elfo to my 3/30/17 email to the Jail Stakeholder Work Group / Facebook post, Noisy Waters Northwest, Dena Jensen

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jail stakeholder work group march 30 email

May 11, 2017  Dena Jensen

I got an email from Sheriff Elfo this morning in response to an email I wrote back on March 30, to the Jail Stakeholder Work Group (my email is shown in the graphic). This resistance-is-futile kind of quote from the Sheriff bugs me the most: “Despite all that is being done and can be done outside the context of the jail, there will continue to be a need for a jail. The law requires it.” Continue reading →

The Mysterious State of the Whatcom County Jail / NorthwestCitizen, Tip Johnson

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The Voice of Authority

Mon, Oct 26, 2015, 2:57 pm Tip Johnson

This election, featuring a huge jail tax proposition, has seen much talk about the “dilapidated” jail that is “literally falling apart.”  In a questionable jail mailer Sheriff Elfo cites, “severe and unsustainable conditions within the jail that jeopardize staff, visitors and inmates.”

This begs the obvious: Why has the jail not been fixed after taxpayers approved a sales tax to do so?  According to a letter from Elfo to County Executive Jack Louws on April 22, 2015, Elfo says, “it would be imprudent to invest major capital to remodel and continue utilizing a facility” described as “inadequate, failing and dangerous.”  That makes their 2004 jail tax campaign look like a bait and switch.  And when was that decision made?  By whom? Does Elfo really have the authority to overturn the electorate’s intentions? […]

Read Tip’s complete article on NorthwestCitizen here.