Spokane County on the precipice of renewed effort to overhaul criminal justice system

May 5-Three years after conservative and liberal Spokane County voters unified, soundly rejecting a county tax to build a new jail and boost criminal justice, local leaders are about to decide if and how they might try again.

For months, an expansive task force has met in private to discuss an overhaul of the jail and criminal justice system in Spokane County.

When county commissioners presented the tax three years ago, city leaders hadn't been briefed. Liberals felt the concept was too focused on locking up more people. Conservatives complained that details were skimpy on how the proposed $1.7 billion raised by the sales tax over 30 years would be spent.

This time, there's a bigger emphasis on addressing behavioral health, addiction, homelessness and criminal justice, hoping to avoid the pitfalls of prior efforts. There's also a desire for a more concrete plan if a tax is presented to voters, potentially in November.

"There's been different conversations over the past 20 years, but what's different about this one is everyone that started is still at the table despite having some disagreements, despite having different philosophies," said developer and task force member Chud Wendle. "They know now is the time to come forward with something."

The Safe and Healthy Spokane Task Force is made up of more than 50 local advocates, criminal justice professionals and private business leaders, the latter of which are funding the effort. The group gathers twice a month, in meetings closed to the general public, to discuss the current systems in place and how they could be improved to the benefit of all Spokane County residents.

In the coming weeks, the final product of the group's months of work will be made public in the form of final recommendations to local governments. Most importantly, the group will provide advice to Spokane County commissioners, who are responsible for the county District and Superior courts and detention facilities.

"I'm hopeful that they'll take it and then act on it," Wendle said. "Whether it's a ballot measure or another route."

The task force is looking at the issues facing Spokane County, like crime, addiction or homelessness, holistically. The systems that respond, including hospitals, criminal justice and community services, are intermingled.

Steve Leifman, a former Miami Dade judge the task force hired as a consultant, has advised that potential solutions must be coordinated among different parts of the criminal justice system and with social service and health care providers. Most task force members agree.

"What we're looking for is not a new jail with quotations, big letters, J-A-I-L," Sparber said. "What we're looking for is a facility that addresses the needs of the community while the person's incarcerated, the necessary triage, the necessary legal components of them getting back and forth to court, and then we are looking for that handoff to the community, that linkage to the behavioral health."

Task force member Virla Spencer, CEO and cofounder of the Way to Justice, countered Sparber. Her nonprofit law firm advocates against institutions and systems it considers oppressive, whether it be education, housing, employment or the criminal justice system.

Spencer said that the group, and elected leaders when the time comes, need to be clear with the public that the ask is a new jail, even if that facility also has greatly improved resources, something she agrees is needed locally.

"It needs to be put out with transparency, because I feel like, if the voters have already said no, twice, and you've been trying to do this since 2008, what are we doing?"

The task force varies in opinions, expertise and interests by design. Leaders from various fields across the county bring their expertise to help identify gaps in the system, and to get everyone on the same page. Doing so also means convening representatives of the local governments that all rely on the same criminal justice systems, hospitals and nonprofits.

Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown is not a member of the task force, but the city has been involved from the beginning, she said. The city made recommendations on task force members, like Deputy City Administrator Maggie Yates, and Brown and some council members meet regularly with other local elected leaders to receive briefings.

Brown said it's not only a benefit but imperative to have such a diverse group batting around ideas. It's a return to a more coordinated regional response and builds upon the city's work to improve public safety through introducing more co-response teams, bolstering support services and improving outreach to steer folks away from detention, she said.

"I assume COVID could have been part of that, changing administrations could have been part of that, but there has been a gap in communication and coordination," Brown said. "So the task force is sort of a first step in putting all that back together again and improving on it."

Sparber said the task force gave him a platform to address misconceptions about the jail and broader criminal justice system. He said he and his staff are committed to quality rehabilitation, but current facilities are not adequate, despite a belief that jail is a sort of catch-all.

Managing population is a constant battle that can leave law enforcement waiting outside with a suspect in the car when the downtown jail is full, Sparber said. The behavioral health team for detainees is not enough to address current needs, and regionally, there needs to be bolstered sobering and addiction support. The county recently broke ground on a $21 million facility expected to increase capacity beyond the existing 46 beds once it's on line in early 2027.

The Geiger Corrections Center also needs to be phased out of use, Sparber said. The former barracks was never designed to be a detention facility, and the aging facility needed $40 million in repairs during the last evaluation in 2023. The county will need to remove any trace of the facility when it does vacate one day as dictated by the lease for the land with Spokane International Airport.

Sparber said he appreciated hearing others share their challenges assisting those before and after they're jailed. Hospitals can get overburdened. There is also not a "warm handoff" in place for former detainees in need of additional community support, he said.

Katie McNulty, Spokane County deputy prosecutor and task force member, said discussions over the last several months highlighted that criminal justice is just one component of a better, safer Spokane. Like Sparber, she said she was able to share her perspective from one piece of the ecosystem.

Someone seldom lands in the criminal justice system without pre-existing factors that may have contributed to their run in with the law, McNulty said. The prosecutor's office often interacts with people who have dealt with substance abuse, behavioral health and poor support systems , she said.

"And our system was never really built to fix all of those things, but we're being asked to try to fix them," McNulty said. "I think as prosecutors, we just have that unique perspective of seeing folks who are going through the criminal justice system but have a lot of other stuff going on in their lives, and kind of how that impacts people."

The meetings have not been all sunshine and rainbows. Sparber and McNulty said there are often disagreements, but there also is a mutual respect among the task force members.

"We don't necessarily agree on everything, but we can agree that something needs to be done," Sparber said. "And maybe collectively, we can put together something best for the community, the behavioral health needs, the therapeutic needs. Something that we can have for the future, for generations to come."

Wendle, a prominent voice among local conservative business leaders, agreed he's gained a deeper understanding of the "bigger picture." He's familiar with the woes of business owners but has greatly valued learning the criminal justice system from activists and task force members with lived experience, like Angel Tomeo Sam, he said.

The two were on opposite sides for the last attempt at overhauling the criminal justice system with the 2023 ballot measure.

Tomeo Sam led the political action committee Justice not Jails at the time, and at a meeting of regional governments in March, she said she was proud to have defeated that measure. She got involved this go-round because she believed she needed to share her perspective and those of the people she advocates for as executive director of Yoyot Sp'q'n'i, a nonprofit resource for Indigenous people dealing with domestic violence, mental health issues, substance abuse and homelessness. Tomeo Sam is also founder of Auntie's House Healing Shelter.

Tomeo Sam said many of the issues she's raised over the years are now being taken seriously, and weighed as the task force has moved forward. She hopes the result is impactful change , sharing a story about how Indigenous communities worked together to ensure everyone was fed off the Spokane River when it teemed with salmon.

It can be easy to turn away from the fentanyl crisis, housing woes and behavioral health issues, Tomeo Sam said, but she wants to see a return to caring for every member of the Inland Northwest community.

"In these rooms, I've been hearing over and again that a healthy community has healthy businesses," Tomeo Sam said. "But I'm here to remind people it's really our most vulnerable people. If they're healthy, we're all healthy."

Spencer said she got involved for much the same reasons as Tomeo Sam.

She was not an invited member; she asked to join the task force after seeing media reports of it coming together.

"The only reason why I have chosen to stay on this community task force is I need to be able to have a voice at the table, for our community and for the folks that we represent in this community," Spencer said. "Impacted folks with lived experience, folks who've been impacted by the criminal justice system."

Spencer said she feels like her perspective is valued, but it's not enough. She's one person trying to advocate for a large population, and she believes there's been a lack of community input.

"They've got developers, they've got building owners, and then they've got the criminal justice system folks, and a little bit of healthcare," Spencer said. "But it seems like the community aspect is not as large as it could be."

Before it reaches the community input provided through the ballot, the task force's recommendations need to go through elected leaders.

On Tuesday, the Spokane County Commission took a step toward what could become a 2026 ballot measure. The commissioners voted unanimously to start negotiations with Spokane consulting firm SCJ Alliance to oversee an essential public facility siting process, a study required under state law to find locations to put facilities otherwise difficult to place, like trash dumps, airports and detention facilities.

The county also will form a committee to weigh in on the process and to make final recommendations to the board of county commissioners. The commissioners hold the final say on putting a countywide tax before voters later this year, a decision that would need to come before August to have a measure appear on the November ballot.

The board's actions are the start of the passing of the baton from the task force, Sparber said.

The task force led with collaboration, but it's yet to be seen whether that will extend to elected leaders. The Spokane City Council formally opposed the county's 2023 measure, and the Inland Northwest is familiar with conflicts between governments and the elected leaders at the helm.

In late February, the city of Spokane formally inquired about charges in the jails. The city of Spokane Valley, which relies on the county for law enforcement and all court services, has done their own explorations on what it pays for those services.

Brown said she's appreciative of the work done by the task force, and that she looks forward to reviewing and analyzing its recommendations. She said she is not ready to commit support without saying a final plan and tax measure. When they do, they will likely be broad and details will need to be worked out.

"With respect to what are we specifically going to invest in, and what funds are going to be used to make those investments, and at that point, one piece of it is likely to be facilities, but those facilities could be both correctional detention facilities, but also behavioral health or other types of facilities," Brown said.

"I think there's still a lot of pieces to be put in place before anything goes in front of voters."

She added that there are other resource funds available for local governments to make improvements in public safety, noting a congressional earmark the city secured to introduce more civilian outreach teams to assist people in crisis or experiencing homelessness.

Intervening is often less costly for the tax payer than allowing people to slip into the criminal justice system, Brown said.

"If we make the appropriate investment in coordination and services up front, then we can have better outcomes for people, but also avoid unnecessary costs," Brown said. "Jail costs are the highest daily costs of any other, if you want to think about interventions that we have."

Spencer said she is grateful to have seen such a large, diverse group convene in the interest of bettering Spokane, but it's only a start. If a measure is to be supported by the public, the discussions need to be more accessible to them, she said.

In Spencer's opinion, the task force and its work is just a start.

"You can't just put everybody in a room and say you only got several months to be able to make this work," she said. "If you want something more powerful, something more successful, something that is rooted in community, you need more time. That doesn't happen overnight."

Brown echoed Spencer's sentiment that the work needs to continue, regardless of the recommendations.

"I think that's also another key question is, given the benefits that people have experienced through this process of the task force, how does that keep going?" Brown said.

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