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...

An often-overlooked aspect of the opioid epidemic that has exploded across the U.S. in recent years is how often the abuse of heroin or prescription opiates is accompanied by domestic violence. This is tragic enough for the adults involved, but it’s a ticking time bomb for children who are exposed to these adversities, raising their risk for future drug use and multiple health and mental health conditions. Here’s how one community is trying to address the problem.

As superintendents, we each have had the experience of being stunned, troubled, and moved to action by the rates at which schools were dispatching young people—especially boys of color and special-needs students—to the juvenile-justice system. And each of us has found that big changes in outcomes were possible. How? By moving away from simplistic zero-tolerance policies, toward an understanding of social-emotional learning and the underlying causes of disruptive behavior, and by changing...

In February 2010, off-duty police officer Joseph C. Coffey was driving by a pond when he noticed a car partially submerged in it. He got out of his car and entered the water. He couldn’t open the front door, so he climbed through the back. There was a woman inside. As Coffey prepared to get her out, he began to sense that this wasn’t an accident. The woman wasn’t panicking. Instead, she was crying. She started talking about her personal problems. Coffey had been trained for this. In Warwick,...

Detectives from the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office are on-site at the Family Support Center of South Sound one day a week, offering assistance to domestic violence victims. Detectives will be at the center, located at 201 Capitol Way N in Olympia, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Tuesdays. The Family Support Center can be reached at 360-754-9297. The two agencies have long been partners, working alongside the Thurston County Prosecutor’s Office in the Family Justice Center, said Trish Gregory,...

OLYMPIA, WA – The United States Children's Bureau (CB) has released Building Community, Building Hope , the inaugural film in a planned series aimed at documenting what's working across the country to help prevent child maltreatment and promote child well-being. In Washington, the Department of Corrections and the Department of Early Learning (DEL) joined together in a special partnership featured on the film, which focuses on innovative programs working to engage parents transitioning from...

People arrested in Lacey and unincorporated Thurston County could soon have access to mental health and substance abuse treatment through a pilot program. Officials hope to have the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program running by early June, Prosecutor Jon Tunheim announced Wednesday at a meeting hosted by the Black Alliance of Thurston County. The program would allow people arrested for minor offenses, such as public intoxication, urinating in public and low-level drug offenses, to...