Whatcom County pretrial work group finalizes pretrial-services policies; PSA validation study set

Whatcom County Judge Jones and members of the county's pretrial processes work group reviewed finalized policies for the county's Pretrial Services division and discussed an ongoing validation study of the Public Safety Assessment (PSA) during a virtual work group meeting.

The policies, which Judge Jones said were recently approved, standardize how Pretrial Services closes cases, escalates missed contacts to alleged-violation notices, handles reporting requirements and offers pretrial officers discretion to modify reporting methods (for example, authorizing telephone or Zoom contacts for people without transportation). "We're we're we're just we wanna create some consistency and some accountability for for the work of the pretrial services," Judge Jones said.

Why it matters: The written procedures formally describe practices Pretrial Services staff have been following and set common steps for filing notices to the court and parties when defendants do not make required contacts or when new alleged crimes appear in criminal-history checks. The policies also create a status-report template and a graded violation-response grid meant to calibrate responses based on supervision level (low, medium, high) rather than treating all missed requirements the same.

Key policy details discussed

- Case-closing criteria: Pretrial Services will close a defendant's case on supervision after events such as a…