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Whatcom County task force weighs jail scenarios as budget ceilings shrink
Summary
Whatcom County’s Incarceration Prevention and Reduction Task Force reviewed four jail‑planning scenarios Feb. 23, 2026, with staff saying scenario 2 will be used as a baseline while officials rush to refine capacity, costs and behavioral‑health programming before an April decision. Members debated bed counts, affordability and long‑term operating costs.
Task‑force members spent the Feb. 23 meeting focused on reconciling programmatic goals with what staff called a sharply constrained budget, as consultants presented four program‑level jail scenarios meant to guide an April decision.
Project director Adam Johnson of STV told the group they are still in the ‘‘validation’’ and programming phase, not design, and that the scenarios use a fixed bed count to compare costs: “We’re not into design yet, so we’re not designing anything. We are in the programming and validation stage.” He said scenario 1 used a $170,000,000 budget target but proved inadequate for administration, warehousing and courtroom needs; scenario 4, by contrast, pushed program square footage and costs above $300,000,000.
The presentation and follow‑up discussion centered on three tradeoffs: how many beds to plan for, how much of the…
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