Whatcom County wants to build a new jail. Here’s what’s proposed and what it will cost
For the third time in eight years, Whatcom County voters will be asked to pay 20 cents for every $100 they spend to build a new jail in Ferndale at an estimated cost of $137 million.
County Council members voted 5-0-1 last week to place the sales-tax measure on the Nov. 7 ballot, with Councilman Todd Donovan abstaining and Councilwoman Kathy Kershner absent.
It will require a simple majority of votes to pass.
Two previous ballot measures failed at the polls in 2015 and 2017.
This new proposal comes after months of discussions and planning among elected officials and volunteers with experience in law enforcement, social services and former jail inmates.
In prepared remarks to the council after a two-hour public hearing, County Executive Satpal Sidhu said this jail proposal has little in common with the previous two plans, and he asked voters to support it.
“The proposed ordinance strikes a balance. It is a great compromise. The proposal before you tonight addresses the community’s broad spectrum of priorities,” Sidhu said.
Dozens of residents told the council what they thought of the proposal in a two-hour public hearing Tuesday, and many opposed the plan.
About 100 people rallied outside the County Courthouse before Tuesday’s meeting, saying that county officials should invest in housing, mental health counseling, and addiction treatment services before spending money on a new jail.
“We must invest in care, not cages,” said Jason McGill, executive director of Northwest Youth Services.
Makenzie Graham of Bellingham told the council that she was skeptical of the plan.
“We need services, not sentences. This is a county that barely got it together to pass the measure finding child care, by 20 votes,” Graham said, referring to the 2022 tax initiative.
Several speakers discussed the dilapidated state of the current jail, which is 40 years old and requires millions of dollars in safety renovations, including Cassandra Erickson, a Lynden nurse whose husband is a jail corrections officer.
“This bill is about a jail that is broken and is hurting people. This jail is broken and needs to be condemned,” Erickson told the council.
“I think that this can be a ‘yes, and.’ We can do both things. I think this council is more than capable of being able to help with the housing issue, with drug addiction, with mental health — and with absolutely incarcerating those who have committed heinous crimes,” she said.
As proposed, the jail measure expands capacity in Bellingham from about 350 total inmates in two buildings to a facility that could house 400 to 440 inmates and easily expand if necessary.
Booking restrictions at the main jail downtown mean that only the most serious offenders are detained, but the jails remain near capacity because of a backlog of court cases.
Under the ordinance approved Tuesday, a new jail would include behavioral health and substance-abuse treatment programs, along with supportive housing programs for recently released inmates and diversion programs to keep people out of jail.
This story was originally published July 17, 2023 at 6:43 AM.
