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Bellingham police report fewer out-of-county bookings to SCORE after county lifted restrictions
Summary
Deputy Chief Jay Hart said use of SCORE fell sharply after Whatcom County relaxed jail booking restrictions; SCORE remains an out-of-county option that carries extra travel time and per-diem charges.
Deputy Chief Jay Hart of the Bellingham Police Department reported to the task force that use of SCORE — an owner-city consolidated correctional facility in Des Moines — has dropped since Whatcom County lifted strict jail booking restrictions earlier this year. Hart said the department averaged about three to four SCORE bookings per month last year; after Whatcom County released booking restrictions around Jan. 30–Feb. 1, the department booked only one person into SCORE during February and March.
Hart described operational and fiscal trade-offs for using SCORE: the facility is roughly a 2.5-hour drive one way, creating a five-hour officer turnaround when two officers are required for transport. Municipalities also pay higher daily charges at SCORE when medical or behavioral-health acute beds are needed. Hart said a mental-health residential bed at SCORE adds about $170 per day; a more acute medical or mental-health bed can add about $300 per day.
Hart also described a recent trend in which SCORE notifies Bellingham when another agency books a person who has an outstanding Bellingham warrant; Hart said confirming those warrants can help municipal prosecutors resolve long-outstanding cases but can also increase out-of-county billing for incarceration days.
Task force members questioned the history of out-of-county placements. Scott Kortheis recalled that Yakima had been used in earlier years because of its large capacity and that transportation and medical transfer costs to higher-level care were expensive. Roger Funk, chief of the Blaine Police Department, said he expected billing to increase as more people are booked now that the county restrictions are lifted but said he had not yet seen the bills.
Ownership and contract: A task force participant located the SCORE contract in the meeting packet and said SCORE is formed by owner cities as a governmental administrative agency to operate and maintain a consolidated correctional facility in Des Moines that serves owner cities.
No formal action was taken by the task force on SCORE or booking restrictions at this meeting; members asked that the sheriff's office and jail planners provide a fuller update at a future meeting.
