Spokane’s Safe and Healthy Task Force has released 14 recommendations for improving the region’s response to criminal justice, mental and physical health challenges.
The group convened nine months ago as a response to what members viewed as a crisis. They saw downtown as unsafe and homelessness as a problem that was growing worse.
The 40 or so members split into several subcommittees to study issues and bring recommendations back to the full committee.
On Thursday, they introduced their findings to the public. This hour, we’ll hear the broad outlines of the report and the voices of people who participated in the discussions.
"This is an effort that's intentionally different. And as people with differing backgrounds, perspectives, expertise, professions, and lived experiences have come together in the same room, some with very different priorities, some who disagreed on solutions. They have brought experiences that have challenged assumptions that others have held, sometimes even our own. But yet, they stayed together, they listened, they learned from one another, and they have continued to ask a simple but powerful question. How do we make Spokane a better place for each and every person who calls this home?"
"Key systems in Spokane, the jail, the emergency room, probation, pretrial services, therapeutic courts, behavioral health providers, housing programs, they're all touching many of the same people, but again, none of them can see the full picture. Agencies duplicate work, potentially miss opportunities to coordinate, and spend public dollars responding to crises that a more connected system could have prevented or resolved earlier, potentially, in that process. The task force identified this as one of the most foundational things that needs to change."
"We would like to establish a cross-system coordinated intervention strategy focused specifically on the high utilizers. Work with the sheriff's office and the Spokane Police Department along with the fire department, identify who these people are, and then start developing a program around them. And then identify a population of high users that are also filling our hospital emergency rooms and make sure that we also pay the necessary attention to them to help bring about change in that area as well."
"Today, native people remain disproportionately representative in these systems of crisis, behavioral health and incarceration. These recommendations offer a different path, one rooted in prevention, intervention, healing and connection. And what's good for native Americans is good for everybody. I know this because I've lived this and I've spent nearly a decade walking alongside others who have been apprised to similar paths."
"This is seeing people where they are, seeing them, understanding that sometimes we all stumble, but you get up and you dust yourself off. It doesn't mean that you never stumble again. It just means that you've learned something, and you know maybe that's not the path. Maybe we need to pivot and move forward. Culturally responsive care is that."
"I want to emphasize that these are not two investments. They are two halves of one investment. Modern, right-sized justice facilities and community-based treatment, crisis stabilization, diversion, reentry, prevention, and housing capacity must be planned together because each makes the other work. The task force core conviction from the start has been that safe and healthy move together. You cannot have one without the other."
"The path forward is a connected care system. The path forward is a right place with the right support by the right people, not to leave anyone alone in crisis or a very vulnerable state where further crisis can occur. Warm handoffs are key, and we've seen that throughout our healthcare systems. And warm handoff by peers is even more important. Those with lived experiences that have that human connection, whether it's from what they've experienced in the past or whether they have a connection from the community that they come from."
"Why have past efforts failed? What's the key ingredient? Two things. The coordination structure in the past has always been temporary. It's always been in the form of a pilot program, or it's a temporary momentum that builds to build that coordination. It usually doesn't get the composition of the coordination perfectly correct because key stakeholders are missing. And then always, time goes on, focus goes away."
Reactions from elected officials:
Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown: "For all the moms in the room, you know that the nine months that goes into producing the baby, in this case, the report, is not the end of the story. That is the very actual beginning. And success for this region will be when we see each one of those little babies emerging in our region as someone who can be nourished, safe, healthy, housed with resources that are coordinated. I know that all my colleagues believe in that and that all the people here believe in that. The hard work is still ahead of us."
Spokane City Council President Betsy Wilkerson: "I know there's been chatter, because I will tell you, my community, the first thing I heard was, they're going to build a jail to lock up black and brown people. That was the conversation. And historically, just look at the data, that's what has happened. But as I learn more about the task force, what I'm focused on is providing the beds we need, the right beds, not just incarceration beds, but the right beds to meet the needs of the people that we are trying to help."
Spokane City Councilman Michael Cathcart: "Along the way, there's been both public and private moments where folks have said, you know, this is going to fail. Just like other things in the past have not been fruitful, this is going to fail too. And I thought to myself, boy, I'm usually the cynic, and yet I have just this incredible optimism that we are going to get through this, and we are going to have a set of great recommendations that we can present to the public. And that is exactly where we are at."
Spokane Valley Mayor Laura Padden: "Let us strive to be a community that enforces its laws by ensuring fairness for all, the innocent victims and the offenders. Accountability and compassion are not mutually exclusive. The Spokane Valley City Council supports a plan where accessible services and effective treatment create meaningful improvements in people's lives, and where all individuals are held responsible for their actions."
Sheriff John Nowels: "Government is famously slow to rise to the challenges that our society presents us. That's why this problem has been so persistent and why it seems to be getting worse. We need to take an open mind into this problem and ensure that we pay attention to all of these recommendations. We all have biases and we all have ideas of what we know will be the thing that we can implement that will solve the problem. We have to be reasonable and understand it is not going to be one thing that solves this problem."
Commissioner Chris Jordan: "Chair Brooks and I recognize the urgency of the public safety, drug addiction, and behavioral health challenges that brought this coalition together. That's why we've asked the task force conveners to come before the county commissioners next week to begin the broader community conversation about our region's next steps."
