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Task force reviews county council jail resolution; work groups, costs and service trade-offs top concerns
Summary
Whatcom County's incarceration-reduction steering committee reviewed a draft council resolution that sets a planning budget cap and requests task-force involvement in work groups to study average length of stay and whether a 50% floor for outside implementation projects is achievable. Members raised questions about funding guardrails, construction costs and provider capacity.
The Whatcom County Incarceration Reduction Task Force steering committee on May 7 reviewed a county council resolution that sets a planning budget cap for the Justice Project and asks the task force to help implement two work groups: one to examine average length of stay and average daily population, and another to evaluate how to meet a proposed 50% floor for other implementation projects.
Jill, the staff lead, screened the resolution's extracted proposals and asked the committee to prepare to receive a final council draft after redlines arrived from small-city mayors. Chair Barry said he had received a heavily redlined version just before the meeting and had not yet reviewed those changes.
"So right now, we are sitting with the council's output. It's in a motion to hold," Barry said, noting multiple competing amendments and that the task force could serve as an advisory body if the resolution includes work-group language. He added that two…
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