New Whatcom jail contracts could boot city inmates daily

Under a proposed contract extension with the county, city inmates could be booted from the Whatcom County Jail as it reaches capacity.

Though Whatcom County Executive Jack Louws had said that the county would propose extending existing contracts by another six months, allowing time to negotiate new terms, it appears some steps to tighten the population are included in the proposed extension.

Whatcom County Council is slated to vote Tuesday, Dec. 8, on extensions that would amend the current contracts with all cities in the county.

Specifically, the amended contracts would allow Sheriff Bill Elfo to require a city take back its inmates or transfer them elsewhere six hours after their first court appearance if they aren’t released or can’t make bail.

The sheriff also could require that city inmates serving sentences be transferred with 24 hours notice.

Those two short time periods concerned Bellingham Mayor Kelli Linville, who requested in a letter to Elfo Monday, Dec. 7, that the city instead be given more notice before an inmate would need to be transferred.

“I was very happy when I heard there was going to be an extension of our contract for six months,” Linville said during a Bellingham City Council committee meeting Monday afternoon. “This letter is a result of the contract being extended with changes I do not believe we could comply with. Our goal is public safety with no booking restrictions and we’d like to keep any inmates we have responsibility for in the city.”

Elfo said that he had made it clear throughout the lead-up to the Nov. 3 election, when voters rejected a sales tax measure that would have funded a new jail, that he would need to reduce the jail population in January after current contracts expire.

“I said that regardless of whether the jail tax passes or fails, we still need to reduce the jail population,” Elfo said in an interview Monday night. “We need the fluid flexibility to get people out of the facility. We can’t operate it in the condition it’s in now. It’s inhumane and probably bordering on creating legal challenges for us.”

Setting restrictions

From Jan. 1 on, Elfo said he plans to look at daily numbers of who comes into and goes out of the jail, and come up with a daily cap for the population of the main jail next to the county courthouse.

The county would have to house its required inmates, including all those charged with felonies regardless of which agency books them, people booked on misdemeanor charges by the sheriff’s office, and inmates for state agencies.

After the population hits that number, Elfo said he would ask the cities to transfer their people out of the facility to another jail.

“I’m not setting a definite range or cap, but we’re basing it somewhere around 212,” he said. The population has hovered between 217 and 241 over the last several weeks.

The jail won’t impose booking restrictions that were once in place, and Elfo said he does not want to prevent any officer from being able to bring in someone who needs to be booked in a timely manner.

Elfo said he would present the contract extensions to County Council at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday and would include information from continued meetings with the city of Bellingham.

The amended language states that the cities would need to remove inmates within those set times or at a later time as agreed to by the sheriff. Elfo said he thought that probably left enough room for Bellingham’s concerns to be addressed.

“I need as much latitude and discretion as I can to use the space we do have wisely,” Elfo said. “I have the ability to keep people in there longer if we think we can manage it.”

Other jail contract

Bellingham staff informed the council Monday afternoon they had looked at making contracts with several jails throughout the state and had ultimately drafted an agreement with Yakima County that could come back to council for approval Dec. 14.

The city was looking to contract with Yakima only on an as-needed basis due to the conditions in the Whatcom jail and restrictions Elfo said he expected would be needed, Linville said.

The city also is looking at other options to reduce the need to incarcerate people through jail alternatives, both at the city and county level.

This story was originally published December 7, 2015 at 6:26 PM with the headline "New Whatcom jail contracts could boot city inmates daily."