Spokane council advances plan for public therapeutic-courts dashboard, reviews supported-release data

The Spokane Regional Law & Justice Council on July 8 discussed plans to publish a public dashboard documenting outcomes from therapeutic courts across municipal, district and superior courts and reviewed recent data on supported-release programs.

Council members said the dashboard is intended to increase public awareness of veterans, mental-health, DUI and drug courts and to provide standardized metrics for comparisons. Misty, presenting the proposed metrics, said the group plans to publish demographics (race, ethnicity, gender, age), program activity (active participants, referrals, entries, graduations), treatment and case-management outcomes (housing, employment, education) and substance-testing summaries. "We'll start with what we can do now, and then we'll keep expanding it," Misty said, describing a phased approach and monthly updates during initial rollout.

Rebecca, reporting on the criminal-justice data project with the Justice Management Institute, said two site visits have been completed and that the institute will provide a system map, prioritized recommendations and estimated costs after a second trip and final reporting.

Aaron, who manages the supported-release work, said the voluntary program enrolls about 35–40 new participants per month and that active participants have shown strong outcomes: "For the folks who are actively engaged and enrolled in the program, the safety rate's still clipping around 96 percent," he said, adding the program has recorded 61 new arrests or citations over the life of the program. Aaron also said the program is operating with one fewer grant-funded position and requested reallocated funds to sustain court navigator help desks.

Members and Judge Hazel discussed whether the supported-release model could expand into Superior Court. Several participants noted that Superior Court already operates a monitored-release program (court-ordered) with similar referral mechanisms. "We're finding…appearance rates and safety rates are maybe a little better with the voluntary program than the mandatory," Aaron said, and members agreed budget decisions for 2027 will drive any expansion.

Katie, the county prosecutor who participated, cautioned that dashboards must give context for legal categories: she said the Sentencing Reform Act (SRA) definitions used in some jail dashboards can lead the public to interpret large numbers of "nonviolent" jail occupants as minor offenders when the legal classification does not always match public perceptions of violence. She urged the council to include detailed charge-type breakdowns and criminal-history context.

The council did not take formal action on the dashboard on July 8 but directed staff to proceed with data standardization work, continue engagement with the Justice Management Institute and return with prioritized metrics and a phased implementation timeline.