Module 1
When arrests happen
Booking timestamps reveal distinct patterns by charge category. DUI arrests cluster between 1am and 3am on weekends. Warrant executions peak at midday on weekdays. Assault and Domestic Violence (DV) contacts spike after 10pm. These patterns matter for staffing, for diversion response timing, and for understanding what is driving the overnight headcount.
DUI peak hour
3 AM
113 DUI bookings at 3am. 40% of all DUI bookings happen between midnight and 4am.
Warrant peak hour
1 PM
Warrant executions peak midday Tuesday-Friday. Administrative in character.
Assault peak hour
11 PM
Assault 4th and DV contacts cluster 10pm-1am. Overlap with bar closing hours.
DUI: Sat/Sun share
56%
395 of 954 DUI primary bookings occur Saturday or Sunday. Highest single day: Saturday (205).
Department of Corrections (DOC) Detainer peak
Mon-Tue
DOC detainers are heavily weekday and business-hours. Administrative, not incident-driven.
Most even distribution
DWLS 3rd
DWLS 3rd bookings are spread across all hours and days, consistent with traffic enforcement patterns.
All Bookings by Hour of Day, 2025
4,743 total bookings. Overnight dip 5-8am reflects reduced enforcement activity, not reduced crime.
Source: WCSO Public Booking Data 2025. Booking timestamp, column 0. Chuckanut Health Foundation analysis.
Bookings by Day of Week, 2025
Saturday leads overall, but patterns differ sharply by charge category.
Source: WCSO Public Booking Data 2025. Chuckanut Health Foundation analysis.
DUI Bookings by Hour vs. All Other Bookings
The overnight DUI peak creates a distinct staffing and service window.
Source: WCSO Public Booking Data 2025. Chuckanut Health Foundation analysis. DUI includes all bookings where DUI was the primary charge.
Warrant vs. Assault vs. DV by Hour
Three distinct patterns: business-hours warrants, overnight assault, evening DV contacts.
Source: WCSO Public Booking Data 2025. Chuckanut Health Foundation analysis.
What timing tells us about service design
Diversion responses need to match the contact window. A Crisis Receiving Center that closes at 10pm cannot divert overnight DUI or assault arrests. A warrant resolution program that operates 9am-5pm can reach the largest single booking category (Failure to Appear (FTA) warrants peak at midday). A DV co-responder program needs evening and overnight coverage. The timing data documents the gap between when the system generates contacts and when services are available to intercept them.
Module 2
What each charge category costs the county
At $250 per person per day (derived from the Whatcom County 2025 Corrections Bureau budget of $21M divided by an Average Daily Population (ADP) of approximately 230), length of stay multiplied by booking count produces a rough annual incarceration cost per category. These figures are estimates, not accounting. They are useful for comparing the relative fiscal weight of different charge populations.
Where the $250/day figure comes from
The Whatcom County 2025-2026 Executive Recommended Budget shows the Bureau of Corrections 2025 appropriation at $21,032,274 (Jail Administration + Jail In Custody + Alternative Corrections + Transport). The budget narrative describes an ADP of "approximately 210 prisoners daily" at the main facility. At ADP 210, total corrections cost per person per day = $274. At ADP 230 (accounting for minimum security facility), the figure is approximately $250. This is a county-sourced estimate, not a national benchmark. The figure is appropriate for order-of-magnitude cost comparisons.
Estimated Annual Incarceration Cost by Charge Category, 2025
Based on total Length of Stay (LOS) days per category multiplied by $250/day. Median and mean LOS shown for context. Categories sorted by total estimated annual cost.
| Charge Category | Bookings | Median LOS | Mean LOS | Est. ADP | Est. Annual Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FTA Warrant | 611 | 4d | 21.7d | 34.9 | $3,186,250 |
| DV Order Viol. | 272 | 4d | 29.2d | 20.6 | $1,882,500 |
| DWLS 3rd Degree | 390 | 2d | 17.7d | 18.4 | $1,681,500 |
| DOC Detainer | 236 | 3d | 21.5d | 12.8 | $1,171,750 |
| Assault 4th | 473 | 2d | 8.7d | 11.0 | $1,004,000 |
| DUI | 954 | 0d | 4.4d | 11.0 | $999,750 |
| Assault 2nd | 118 | 2d | 24.6d | 7.4 | $670,750 |
| Drug Possession | 108 | 5d | 21.4d | 6.1 | $557,500 |
| Burglary 2nd | 113 | 3d | 18.3d | 5.3 | $486,250 |
| DWLS 2nd Degree | 100 | 2d | 16.5d | 4.4 | $400,750 |
| DWLS 1st Degree | 64 | 1d | 18.3d | 3.0 | $274,000 |
| Theft 3rd | 84 | 1d | 7.1d | 1.6 | $142,500 |
| Criminal Trespass | 65 | 2d | 8.5d | 1.4 | $131,500 |
| Attempting to Elude | 40 | 4d | 12.0d | 1.3 | $120,000 |
| Malicious Mischief (all) | 66 | 2d | 10.0d | 1.8 | $165,000 |
| Reckless Driving | 37 | 2d | 8.0d | 0.8 | $74,000 |
| Hit and Run (all types) | 56 | 2d | 9.0d | 1.4 | $126,000 |
| Harassment (non-felony) | 39 | 2d | 8.0d | 0.9 | $78,000 |
| Weapons Charges | 21 | 3d | 12.0d | 0.7 | $63,000 |
| Child Exploitation | 36 | 10d | 45.0d | 4.4 | $405,000 |
| Drug Mfg/Delivery | 55 | 4d | 18.0d | 2.7 | $247,500 |
| Burglary Residential | 20 | 3d | 15.0d | 0.8 | $75,000 |
| Admin/Federal Holds | 29 | 1d | 5.0d | 0.4 | $36,250 |
| Traffic Misc & Rare Charges | 172 | 1d | 6.0d | 2.8 | $258,000 |
| TOTAL (all categories, no Other) | 4,182 | 153.4 | $14,340,750 |
Source: WCSO Booking Data 2025 + Whatcom County Executive Budget 2025-2026 (Bureau of Corrections appropriation $21,032,274). LOS calculated from case-level release dates vs. booking date; directional estimate only. "Est. ADP" = total LOS days / 365. These are cost estimates for comparison purposes, not audited figures. Rows added from prior "Other" category: Attempting to Elude (37 bookings), Malicious Mischief 2nd+3rd (66), Reckless Driving (29+8), Hit and Run all types (56), Harassment non-felony (39), Weapons charges (unlawful poss firearm, carry/exhibit, poss dangerous weapon, poss stolen firearm: 21), Child Exploitation (pornography/depict minors, child molestation 1st/2nd, sexual exploitation of minor: 36), Drug Mfg/Delivery (CONT SUB MFG/DEL/POSS W/INT and related: 55), Burglary Residential (20), Admin/Federal Holds (civil bench warrants, FBI/federal holds, DOSA/SOSSA revocations: 29), Traffic Misc and Rare (Operate Vehicle w/o Certificate, Reckless Endangerment, Trip Permit, Implied Consent Refusal, and ~132 charges with 1-2 occurrences: 172). LOS and cost for newly-added rows are estimates based on comparable charge categories; individual LOS data not re-run for these groups.
ADP Contribution by Category
Estimated average daily population contribution. This is what determines bed need, not booking count.
Source: WCSO 2025 + Whatcom County Executive Budget. ADP = total LOS days / 365.
The Median vs. Mean LOS Gap
The gap between median and mean reveals which categories have a long-tail of extended stays driving average daily population.
Source: WCSO Booking Data 2025. Categories with large median-to-mean gaps have outlier long-stay cases pulling the mean up and driving disproportionate ADP.
The two most important findings in this table
FTA Warrant bookings are the single largest cost driver at an estimated $3.19M annually, contributing 34.9 beds to average daily population. Yet the underlying issue for the largest subset (DWLS 3rd FTA, Theft 3rd FTA, Assault 4th FTA) is not ongoing criminal behavior; it is accumulated missed court appearances. DWLS 3rd is the third-largest cost category at $1.68M annually, driven by a mean stay of 17.7 days despite a median of only 2 days. That gap signals a small number of cases with very long stays pulling the mean up substantially.
What a 10% reduction in FTA warrant ADP would be worth
If warrant resolution programs, court reminder systems, or case navigator services reduced FTA warrant average daily population by 10%, the fiscal value at $250/day would be approximately $319,000 annually, or roughly 3.5 beds freed for other uses. A warrant quashing clinic serving 100 people at $500/person in services costs $50,000. The return on investment math favors intervention for this population at almost any reasonable cost-per-contact estimate.
Module 3
Bail, pretrial holds, and who waits in jail
The booking record shows what bail was set and what the final disposition was, but it does not directly show who was held because they could not post bail. The best proxy is the distribution of bail amounts alongside the disposition data. What we can see: 873 bookings (18.4%) had No Bail Allowed. 406 bookings (8.6%) were Cash Only, the most restrictive bail type. And 1,376 bookings resulted in Bail Bond disposition, meaning the person eventually posted bail, but potentially after days of waiting.
873
No Bail Allowed (18.4% of all bookings)
Judicial order prohibiting release on bail. Includes specialty court holds, serious offense holds, and Sunday probable cause holds. Person is held until a judge reviews the case.
406
Cash Only bail (8.6% of all bookings)
The most restrictive bail type. Person must post the full cash amount, not a bond percentage. 110 of the 406 Cash Only bookings were FTA Warrant cases. Median Cash Only bail amount: $500-$1,000 depending on charge.
2,889
Appearance Bond (60.9% of all bookings)
Standard bail bond. Person or family posts a percentage through a bail bondsman. Most common bail type. Median bail set: $1,000-$3,500 depending on charge category.
1,348
Released on Personal Recognizance (PR)
Released on promise to appear, no bail required. 28.4% of all 2025 dispositions. Median pretrial LOS on PR dispositions: 1 day.
Median Bail Amount by Charge Category
What bail is typically set for each category, among bookings where a bail amount was recorded.
Source: WCSO Booking Data 2025. Bail amount column (col 15). Median of non-zero bail amounts per primary charge category.
Pretrial LOS: Bail Bond and PR Dispositions Only
2,643 bookings that were eventually released on bail or PR. How long did they wait?
Source: WCSO Booking Data 2025. LOS calculated for bookings disposed as Bail Bond or Personal Recognizance only. Excludes sentenced, transported, or dismissed cases. These are people who were released but not after serving a sentence.
What the data cannot tell us about bail
The booking data records what bail was set and what the final disposition was. It does not record how long a person waited before posting bail. A person disposed as "Bail Bond" may have posted within hours, or may have waited two weeks before family could gather the funds. The LOS figures for Bail Bond dispositions capture this waiting time but cannot distinguish "waited to post bail" from "waited for other reasons." To understand who is held purely because of inability to pay, the county would need to track the gap between booking and bail posting separately.
The Cash Only finding
110 FTA Warrant bookings in 2025 had Cash Only bail, with a median bail amount of $500. A person held on a Cash Only $500 bail for a missed court date on a DWLS 3rd charge, who cannot access $500, will sit in jail accumulating per-day costs to the county while the underlying issue (a suspended license from an unpaid fine) remains unresolved. At $250/day, 7 days of pretrial hold costs the county $1,750 to enforce a charge where the median underlying fine is far less.
Module 4
What actually drives the bed count
Average Daily Population is the number that determines how many beds the facility needs on any given day. ADP is not driven by booking count. It is driven by length of stay. A booking that lasts 1 day contributes 1/365th of one bed to ADP. A booking that lasts 90 days contributes 90/365ths. The categories with the highest ADP contribution are not necessarily the most frequently booked.
FTA Warrant ADP contribution
34.9
Largest single category. 611 bookings at mean 21.7 days = 34.9 beds on any given day.
DV Order Violations ADP
20.6
272 bookings but mean 29.2 days drives a high ADP. 27% last 30+ days.
DWLS 3rd ADP
18.4
Third largest. Mean 17.7 days despite median of only 2 days. Long-tail cases.
DUI ADP despite volume
11.0
954 bookings but 54% are same-day releases. Low median LOS keeps ADP contribution modest.
DOC Detainer ADP
12.8
State supervision holds. 22% last 30+ days. Driven by state policy, not local enforcement decisions.
Same-day releases (all cats)
~26%
Contribute near-zero to ADP despite representing 1 in 4 bookings. High volume, low bed impact.
Booking Count vs. ADP Contribution by Category
The disconnect between how often a category is booked and how much it contributes to average daily population. Categories above the diagonal line punch above their weight in bed demand relative to booking frequency.
Source: WCSO Booking Data 2025 + Whatcom County Executive Budget. Bubble size = estimated annual cost at $250/day. X-axis = booking count. Y-axis = ADP contribution (total LOS days / 365). Categories above the reference line contribute disproportionately to bed demand relative to their booking frequency.
The key planning insight
Jail facility sizing is fundamentally a length-of-stay problem, not a booking-count problem. The four categories that dominate ADP are FTA Warrants (34.9 beds), DV Order Violations (20.6), DWLS 3rd (18.4), and DOC Detainers (12.8). Together they account for an estimated 86.7 beds of average daily population. Three of these four categories have documented intervention pathways: warrant resolution programs, DV intervention, and license reinstatement assistance. The fourth (DOC Detainers) is driven by state supervision policy. A facility plan that does not include strategies targeting these four categories is not addressing the actual drivers of bed demand.
What a behavioral health unit means in ADP terms
Washington State University (WSU) documented that 71% of the jail population has a behavioral health need. If that figure applies to the 2025 ADP, approximately 150-160 of the estimated 230 average daily beds are occupied by people with behavioral health needs. The categories with the highest mean LOS and the longest pretrial holds (Drug Possession at 21.4 days mean, DV Order Violations at 29.2 days, Assault 2nd at 24.6 days) are the most likely to overlap with the behavioral health population. This is the population the proposed Co-Occurring Disorders inpatient facility and Crisis Receiving Center are designed to divert and treat. Without Attachment B of the STV/EP&A report, the county cannot quantify how much those investments would reduce ADP and therefore bed need.