As plans for a new jail facility move forward, the current jail continues to operate well beyond capacity. Let’s take a look back at jail capacities and populations over the years.
November 1983 - New jail opens with a capacity of 148.
Mid-1980s - Capacity increased to 160.
1990 - Average daily population is 169.
1991 - Average daily population reaches 206.
May 1992 - Booking restrictions put in place to ease overcrowding. Low-level offenders are given citations but not booked into jail. Around the same time, a document is prepared for the Undersheriff detailing overcrowding issues at the jail.
Early 1993 - Security Solutions Plus Inc. is contracted to house male work-release inmates.
December 1993 - Average daily population is 221.
1994 - Capacity increased to 224 by welding a second bunk into all second-floor cells.
December 1994 - Average daily population is at 235.
January 1995 - Booking restrictions increased to only allow booking of persons who were thought to be a threat to public safety. All other offenders given citations and released.
December 1995 - Average daily population is at 245.
January 1996 - Capacity increased to 238.
December 1996 - Population averages 263.
1997 - Jail alternatives program expanded and allows more offenders to participate, reducing the number of offenders booked into jail.
March 1997 - Blue Ribbon Panel on Criminal Justice and Public Safety Needs submits recommendations that include building a new minimum 750-bed jail facility, add officers and combine several programs and pass a 0.1 percent sales tax to fund the criminal justice system in Whatcom County.
December 1998 - Average daily population is 223.
1999 - Jail starts to release offenders early, so long as they are not a threat to the community.
March 1999 - Building inspection reveals serious structural, fire safety and electrical problems and the county is told to make a plan for correction.
April 1999 - Memo sent to jail staff allowing persons arrested on misdemeanor warrants to be released on their own recognizance.
2000 - Early release of inmates reaches 12.6 percent.
2001 - By converting the jail records room to a dormitory, capacity is increased to 256.
December 2001 - Average daily population is 227.
April 2002 - Further booking restrictions implemented.
May 2003 - Sheriff Bill Elfo writes a press release stressing the need for a new jail facility.
December 2003 - Average daily population is 238.
Between 1997 and 2005 - 51.3 percent of inmates released early due to overcrowding. In October 2005, judicial policy changed to restrict early release of inmates.
December 2005 - Average daily population is up to 265.
June 2006 - Capacity increased to 280 by again welding second bunk into a number of cells, including isolation cells.
November 2006 - Jail Interim Work Center opens, adding space for work-release inmates and increasing total jail capacity to 430.
November 2007 - Contract with Security Solutions for work-release inmates terminated, bringing those inmates back to the jail or to the Work Center.
December 2007 - Average daily population reaches 403.
December 2008 - Population nears capacity at 428.
2007 - Present - No further increases to capacity take place. The total population is near capacity at any given time but the population of the main jail is almost constantly over capacity.
*Information drawn from Build a Safe Jail site. For Sheriff Bill Elfo’s take on the need for a new jail, read his opinion here, which ran in the Bellingham Herald in November 2010.
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