IPRTF endorses off-site behavioral care center model, removes specific location from recommendation

The Incarceration Prevention and Reduction Task Force voted to advance a behavioral care center model to the Whatcom County Council on an amended recommendation that removes a specified location.

The IPRTF BCC work group recommended adoption of “the behavioral care center model as outlined in the draft document developed as part of an integrated off-site behavioral health campus providing inpatient therapeutic community based care as an alternative to incarceration rather than an in-custody model,” Peter Frazier, who presented the recommendation, read into the record. The motion was moved by Bertie Safford and seconded by Alexis Haas; the roll-call vote passed with one abstention by Raelene King.

Why it matters: The recommendation pushes the county’s planning process toward an out-of-custody treatment model intended to expand diversion options, integrate crisis response and in-custody behavioral-health supports, and establish…