RCC MILESTONES
~2006~
The Restorative Community Coalition is founded by Irene Morgan with focus on reentry services and housing 1st
~2008 – 2009~
The Re-Entry University is funded, we succeed in serving dozens of clients at less than $500 each to stop recidivism
~2010~
Met with 24 Whatcom County Stakeholders selected by Pete Kremen to present alternatives to Incarceration
Hosted the Visionary Opportunities Conference
Produced the Appreciating Society Model to illustrate how we could intercept incarceration at the point of arrest
~2011~
The RCC received grant and funding to successfully helped another 7 of 10 people to reenter society. We learned that just $1500 plus case management could produce an 85% success rate in getting people out of the arrest cycle.
We launched our first pilot project to do housing plus case management. Unfortunately, we were underfunded, and we learned that we needed full capitalization and “lived experience” case managers to manage the housing and re-entry program. We were restored a temporary home with community donations and volunteer labor. People will and can help.
Coalition members were actively engaged attending the Jail Task Force meetings, learning and diagramming how the justice and jail system did and did not work for the clients we serve. We spoke at conferences, took courses in restorative justice, researched and built our Coalition’s library of knowledge.
~2012 – 2014 ~
We continued with Direct Services to clients & started public education programs like Choices and Consequences.
Began engaging in civic activism, with research and testimony, directed to officials regarding restorative justice, and aggressively testified against purchasing the land in the County to build a huge 2450 bed jail. Published reports with the EIS process. Worked with many students at WWU to do research into the jail industry, how we could do restorative economics differently. Were told to “stand down” from fighting against the jail, were told we needed to limit our scope to just talk about reentry – or we would not be funded. Instead, we testified harder and renamed the non-profit to be the Restorative Community Coalition. Did more events and trainings for the community.
~2015~
The County officials were pushing hard to pass the tax, so we did more and more opposition research, providing more and more alternatives to the Council and the publis. Increased our direct services to clients and did deeper research into the jail industry business model. We provided new restorative justice options to community through our educational Facebook pages, public testimony. We talked directly with local officials about how our Prosecutor and law enforcers are over-criminalizing and over-incarcerating citizens, and mismanaging the jail.
Our activism helped the County Council decide to create the Incarceration Prevention and Reduction Task Force.
Hosting many panels, events and educational testimony, mobilized community to stand up. Our President, Joy Gilfilen, realized that the only way to have a public discussion on the jail tax, was to run for public office so a debates could happen, then realized that the issue was still be brushed under the rug for taxpayers. The Coalition members stepped up, did even more research and the Coalition Founder Irene Morgan, and President Joy Gilfilen published an alternative vision for the future titled Stop Punishing Taxpayers, Start Rebuilding Community – 2015 Taxpayers Report.
The jail sales tax initiative was rejected by voters at 51%.
~2016~
Our Coalition did investigative research into facts about the Whatcom County Jail Mailer published by the County to pass the 2015 Jail Sales Tax Initiative, and our President wrote and filed the Noble Cause Corruption Report with the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission. Ultimately the Whatcom County Executive was fined for campaign law violations, and placed on a 5 year restriction.
The Coalition hosted more meetings, workshops and trainings…developed programs for direct services, started studying the impacts of trauma on inmates. Irene Morgan, our founder was appointed to serve on the IPRTF, and Joy Gilfilen served as her proxy – so hundreds of hours was invested in mapping and diagramming the local Whatcom County Jail and Justice system, working directly with the Vera Institute of Justice.
~2017~
Continued Direct Services and case management, tracking challenges and developing a court navigator program.
Provided investigative research documents for the public to be informed.
Hosted an all day No More Taxes Panel of Professionals Community Discussions.
Created the No Bigger Jail video that explained how the privateering jail industry economy works.
Successful in educating the public so they could reject the jail tax on the ballot. Voters rejected the tax by 58%.~2018 ~ 2020
Sponsored the Prosecutor’s Debate, met repeatedly with community organizations, hosted monthly meetings for members, met with Council Members, Judges, Prosecutors, Public Defenders educating them about how the Coalition could help with Court Navigation, how risk assessments could be done, worked with VERA Institute report findings to educate the public.
Hosted the Top Five Hidden Drivers of Mass Incarceration series of events.
When the Coalition realized that the Council was not going to interview inmates and clients of the jail, members and clients of the Coalition volunteered to tell their story to help the community, even though it would re-traumatize them, they wanted to help identify the top failures in the system, so it could be fixed. Joy Gilfilen did a 79 person ethnographic research study of people impacted by an arrest, and their family, employers and 1st Responders. Joy was stunned at the results for it revealed that the discussion that is had about criminal justice reform, needs to clearly be turned on its head to be truly about jail reform and emotional crisis management.
Joy consolidated the research, and the Coalition published the Blindspots: Unexpected Findings from Jail Trauma Research and the RADD-RAT Whatcom County Jail Trauma Chart. This clearly demonstrated the direct link between an arrest, homelessness, poverty and mental illness.~2020~ The Coalition has been developing Five Emotional Interception and Early Intervention Programs to help citizens impacted by emotional distress and an emergency crisis and to exit the justice system BEFORE they are incarcerated.