Bellingham man swinging hatchet at cars taken to homeless shelter, not jail

BELLINGHAM, Wash. — A new policy means the Whatcom County Jail has to turn some offenders away.

A seemingly intoxicated man was swinging a hatchet and stick at cars along the waterfront in Bellingham Monday morning. City police arrested him but he didn’t go to jail.

Bellingham police say the man James Rittel -- is a felon who is a familiar face to their officers.

“Since 1999 we’ve had 344 contacts with Mr. Rittel,” explained Lt. Bob Vander Yacht.  “At times he’s been fairly outrageous (in) his behavior.”

But the hatchet incident led to misdemeanor citations for brandishing a weapon and disorderly conduct. So police took Rittel to a homeless shelter instead of jail.

Starting July 10, Whatcom County decided that unless the person has committed a misdemeanor assault, when the county's inmate population reaches 205 Bellingham will have to cite and release its misdemeanor suspects or take them elsewhere -- either to Yakim or SCORE in Des Moines, about 2 1/2 hours south.

“That’s inconvenient to transfer people back for court, that’s inconvenient for the attorneys but it’s less inconvenient than this dire public safety issue and the risks associated with being in this facility when it’s overcrowded,” explained Sheriff Bill Elfo, who took us inside the county’s deteriorating 32-year-old jail.

Elfo says the county desperately needs a new facility but a sales tax failed on the ballot in 2015.  He says conditions in the current jail are dangerous.

“Structural issues where the inmates have been able to kick open doors, the locks have become brittle,” Elfo told us. Last week, he says, his officers discovered a shank hidden inside a cell wall inmates managed to rip out.

The sheriff says corrections officers fear for their safety.

“We’re losing good people who are saying, ‘I just can’t take it anymore,’” Elfo explained.

And other people are given a “get out of jail” free card.

So far Bellingham police have only transferred one inmate to the SCORE facility. They acknowledge it was time-consuming, but if they deem it necessary— meaning the person poses a risk to the public -- they say they will absolutely do it.

Cox Media Group