11 x 17″ LARGE POSTER FOR COMMUNITY EDUCATION – TWO SIDED
- Side One- BLINDSPOTS:UNEXPECTED FINDINGS FROM JAIL TRAUMA RESEARCH
- Side Two – WHATCOM COUNTY JAIL TRAUMA CHART: RADICALIZED ACUTE DISTRESS UNDER DURESS (RADD) & REPETITIVE ACCELERATING TRAUMA (RAT)
This poster was created to synthesize the emotional distress people experience as a result of a crisis, arrest, and then jailing happens. It was started as a public inquiry since the Vera Institute of Justice recommended that the Coalition might want to do this research ourselves since there was no such research available at the time that the VERA Institute of Justice was doing a study in Whatcom County’s overall performany and it’s justice system process.
So, in 2018 Joy Gilfilen, President of the Restorative CommUnity Coaliton, did an in-person, hands-on ethnographic research study on the impacts of an arrest on people, and to diagram what happens inside the emergency responder system from the point of an incident is reported, prior to an arrest, then what happened in the 24-72 hours before an arrested person goes to court and meets a public defender.
In this case, Joy interviewed 79 people who she had worked with as they were involved in the process. While 53 of the people had been arrested, another 26 were family members, loved ones or 1st responders dealing with the crisis impacts directly, or in the aftermath. You can order this high-gloss poster for your office, for use with clients, for educating people about how jail trauma affects our entire community, and to understand why it starts a self-destructive process that costs everyone in our community when the trauma is not intercepted. See a more detailed description of the research conducted below.
The Study Details and Process: Year – 2018 Interviewer: Joy Gilfilen People Interviewed: – 79 Total – both male and female, 2 LGBTQ – All over 18 – All age groups – 53 were people who had been arrested and jailed in Whatcom County – 26 were friends, parents, family, partners, bosses, hospital or mental health providers, police, employees of the justice system including prosecutors, defenders, clerks, judges, probation and substance use providers, social service providers.
These interviews were conducted in 2018 over a period of several months. Joy asked people to talk with her for between 2-5 hours each to discuss the impact of the arrest on them and their families with the ultimate goal to find out from them what could be done to fix the problems people have with the arrest, jail and justice system. This was a summary of Joy’s observations afterwards. The chart was distributed back to the participants to get their feedback on the gleanings. They validated that the charts really captured their experiences overall, and were stunned at the comprehensiveness and accuracy of it to their experiences. 
