Whatcom County's Incarceration Prevention Reduction Task Force on Nov. 24 reviewed an updated sequential intercept map and a draft inventory of diversion programs, and set a February sequential-intercept-mapping (SIM) workshop to produce a usable product for implementation planning.

"The SIM lays out what services exist, which ones lack capacity and which are missing," Dean White, who reviewed the 2022 map and the draft updates, said. He told members the workshop should identify process and procedural changes that would allow diversion to occur at specific intercept points, not only a list of programs.

Melora of Health and Community Services ran through a draft inventory that maps pre-arrest options (LEAD, alternative response teams, GRACE, mobile crisis outreach teams and designated crisis responders, detox and crisis triage), proposed sites (a behavioral care center, a 23-hour crisis center and psychiatric urgent care), and post-arrest and sentencing alternatives (prosecutorial diversion, pretrial services, therapeutic courts such as recovery and mental-health court, DOSA, work release) as well as juvenile, restorative and reentry supports (peer services, transitional and permanent supportive housing such as Sun House and City Gate).

"We think about the SIM when we think about what we already have in the community," Melora said, adding that some listed items are proposed and not yet implemented. She also noted funding will be constrained in coming years and urged the task force to prioritize.

Task force members repeatedly flagged the need for outcome data. "It would be interesting to be able to see if and how cite-and-release performs compared with booking," Raylene said, calling for more analysis of court-appearance rates and program follow-through. Melora said the county secured a Health Care Authority grant to support a two-year evaluation of the response systems division and expects to have an evaluator solicitation in January, with a report expected by June 2027 and an ongoing goal to build public data dashboards.

Co-chair Heather Flaherty said the February workshop will require an application process for attendees and cautioned the group not to create "a document that just gets put on a shelf," emphasizing that planners will aim to bring the right stakeholders to identify "high-leverage handoff opportunities" where coordination or minor policy changes could reduce losses in the system.

Several participants stressed that diversion is not one-size-fits-all. Prosecutor and defense perspectives differ on when and how diversion should occur, and presenters urged attention to upstream prevention (housing and basic needs) as essential to successful diversion.

The task force did not take formal votes. Planners said they will circulate the draft inventory publicly, invite written feedback and continue preparing for the February SIM workshop.