When considering reforms to our local criminal justice system, three questions must be answered: are we reducing victimization, do we save taxpayer costs to systems and are we transforming or helping to stabilize the lives of people who enter the system? When it comes to Bellingham’s Electronic Home Monitoring program, we are doing all three.

The program, now halfway into its second year, is part of our response to jail booking and housing restrictions imposed by the Sheriff. Starting over a year ago, Whatcom County jail began restricting Bellingham Police Department’s ability to book and detain its misdemeanant defendants and offenders when certain conditions arise, forcing the City to get creative on how it would deal with low-level, nonviolent offenses. We had to come up with something else, and we did.

....When we look at system costs, Electronic Home Monitoring makes sense—instead of paying $108 a day to house a person in the County jail, the City pays a fraction of that—$14.50—to hold people in custody, but while they are in the community. We saved over $690,000 in taxpayer dollars in the last 18 months and cut our jail population by more than 20 percent. And savings happen in non-monetary forms. Having a parent go to jail can create an Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) for a child in the household. Reducing ACEs is regarded by leading social scientists as a way to help build resilient, healthy kids.

To read the entire article by Dan Hammill, Ward 3 representative on Bellingham City Council and a member of the Incarceration Prevention and Reduction Task Force, go to: http://www.cascadiaweekly.com/...onic_home_monitoring