Desler said county officials originally envisioned a 600-bed facility at a cost of $56 million. Elfo said he’d prefer closer to 1,000 beds, citing potential population growth in the county and ...

"Whatcom LEAD has shown strong performance in its mission to reduce recidivism and stop the revolving door of people cycling in and out of the criminal legal system," Christensen said in a statement.

Some Whatcom County council members said the current jail is too small and falling apart. Officials said it would cost nearly $40 million to renovate the jail and it still wouldn’t be big enough.

A task force focused on improving Whatcom County’s ability to keep people out of jail has presented its early research and an outline of the work it plans to do this year. The Incarceration ...

Whatcom County Jail Chief Wendy Jones and Doug Starcher, the citizen who co-wrote the “con” statement against the sales tax measure in the voter’s guide, tried to tackle that question and ...

A Whatcom County Jail inmate was found dead around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday from an suspected overdose, and second inmate has been hospitalized, according to Deb Slater, a spokesperson with the Whatcom ...

Angel Lewis Leffingwell, 38, of Everett, was charged on Feb. 28 in Whatcom County Superior Court with one count of possession of a controlled substance while in a correctional facility, a felony ...

Haas’ death Leffingwell is accused of sliding a piece of paper containing white powder on it underneath the door of Haas’ cell in the downtown Whatcom County Jail shortly before 10:18 a.m. on March 13 ...

Malora Christensen, manager of Whatcom County Health and Community Services’ Response Systems Division, previously told The Herald that without the funding the LEAD program — which her ...