IPRTF reviews Law and Justice Council statute and presses for data‑sharing progress

The Whatcom County Incarceration Prevention and Reduction Task Force (IPRTF) steering committee reviewed the state statute that requires counties to establish a Law and Justice Council and discussed whether the task force is meeting those duties. Heather, a steering committee member, read the RCW aloud, including the requirement that “the county legislative authority shall determine the size and composition of the council, which shall include the county sheriff and a representative of the municipal police departments… the county jail administrator, the county clerk, the county risk manager, and the secretary of corrections, and his or her designees.”

Members confirmed many of the statutorily required functions are already represented on the IPRTF but debated where gaps remain, especially around municipal prosecutors and data sharing. Tasha, who participates in data work, said fragmentation of police, court and social‑service systems has produced “a siloing effect” that limits the task force’s ability to measure program effectiveness and coordinate services. “We don’t all share the same systems,” she said, adding that differing legal rules (including HIPAA and nonprofit privacy protections) complicate routine information exchange.

Bertie recommended the county hire a dedicated project leader to coordinate the VillageReach recommendations and negotiate data‑sharing agreements, arguing that a central coordinator would reduce duplicated effort and accelerate an interim dashboard. “We will be far better served and use less overall energy and people's time and resources to wrap those together,” Bertie said.

Holly and Marty, contract staff working on implementation, told the steering committee they plan to use remaining contract time to report early indicators from existing data and to produce an interim dashboard by the first quarter of next year. Members discussed whether the Law and Justice Council could request technical assistance from the state to support dashboard implementation and data integration.

The conversation concluded with a commitment to map current IPRTF membership to the statutory roles, invite municipal prosecutors where appropriate, and bring dashboard metric suggestions (from the VillageReach spreadsheet) back to policy makers for prioritization. Jill, staff, agreed to circulate the membership chart and to annotate future agendas when the IPRTF is acting specifically under Law and Justice Council responsibilities.

Next steps: staff will distribute the member‑role chart, Holly and Marty will continue short‑term dashboard work, and members will consider a county project lead request or a state technical‑assistance ask for the dashboard and data agreements.