Whatcom County committee hears reentry simulation findings, asks for accountability on Project 11 commitments

Whatcom County’s Justice Project Oversight and Planning Committee heard Tuesday that reentry — the period immediately before and after a person leaves jail — remains a critical and under-resourced gap in local services and that the county should report on progress toward projects the community approved for that purpose.

Presenters from the Chuckanut Health Foundation and community partners summarized outcomes from an “All Hands Whatcom” summit and a reentry simulation used to surface barriers people with lived experience face when leaving detention. They urged the committee to check progress on Project 11 of the Justice Implementation Plan, which the presentation described as the county’s plan to add reentry specialists, coordinate local services, and plan for one or more reentry resource centers.

The reentry simulation and summit participants identified nine recurring gaps, led by access to essential services (IDs, behavioral health care, Medicaid enrollment), housing, employment and education, mental health and substance-use care, peer support and navigation, coordination across systems, policy reform and practical supports (for example, handling technical violations and transportation), public education and stigma reduction, and upstream prevention. “The reentry window is where we’re failing often,” a Chuckanut Health Foundation presenter said, urging the committee to follow up on the implementation plan’s targets.

Project 11’s written description, read into the record during the meeting, lists the project leads as the Sheriff’s Office and Corrections and Whatcom County Health and Community Services, and names collaborators including reentry specialists, community providers, the county housing advisory committee and the executive’s office for capital projects. The plan’s cost estimate provided in the presentation was $6,000,000 in one-time capital costs, plus $300,000 a year for three behavioral health and reentry specialists and $500,000 a year for resource-center operations, with proposed funding sources including the justice sales tax, state funds and behavioral health funds.

Community partners and people with lived experience urged practical changes that do not rely only on new buildings. Daryl Riley, executive director and founder of Up From Slavery Initiative, said meetings and plans must include people with lived experience and asked, “Who’s missing?” Joey, a participant with lived experience, said criminal records make housing and employment difficult and suggested policy changes such as easier record-sealing or “clean slate” approaches. “Maybe somebody meeting you at the gate saying, ‘Hey, let’s figure something out,’” Joey said, describing a simple but consequential warm handoff at release.

Panelists suggested a range of operational responses: a reentry “pod” inside the jail for those ready to start treatment; peer navigators assigned at intake and maintained through release; employer partnerships for transitional jobs; on-site financial-literacy work such as “Bank and Beyond Bars;” and a rapid resource center like one observed in Franklin County, Ohio, offering immediate services such as a warm place to wait, phone charging and staffed referral assistance. County corrections leadership said release timing can push people out during evening hours when services are closed; the sheriff’s office and corrections leadership noted they cannot hold people beyond the court-ordered release or the time when bail is posted.

Existing local services were highlighted as building blocks: Lake Whatcom Center’s HEART team and ACE program, Lifeline Connections reentry efforts, embedded library HEART specialists adjacent to the jail, Sun House and Lighthouse Mission shelter beds, and other case-management resources. Panelists emphasized that many effective practices are collaborative and already happening, but that they are applied unevenly and often to a single person at a time. “We can create new things when we come together and pull our resources,” Whatcom County staff said.

Committee members asked the county to provide a status update on Project 11’s year‑one deliverables — particularly whether the three reentry/reentry-behavioral-health specialist positions were added, whether Medicaid enrollment is being ensured before release, and whether a plan and budget for a reentry/resource center have been advanced. Presenters and panel members also asked the committee to press for greater predictability about release timing from the courts, to reduce late-evening and overnight releases when community supports are not available.

The meeting closed with the committee’s regular business items: members were told a draft year-end report will be assembled and returned to the committee for review in November, and community engagement workshops on the justice facilities design are planned for November 20.

Ending: The committee did not take formal votes on reentry measures at Tuesday’s session; instead, members asked staff and oversight bodies to report back with implementation status and cost plans tied to Project 11 so the committee can assess fidelity to the published Justice Implementation Plan.