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Safe and Healthy Spokane Task Force Releases Community-Built Roadmap for Improving Region’s Public Safety and Health

Cross-Sector Task Force Delivers 14 Recommendations to Break the Cycle of Crisis, Drive Coordination, and Build a System That Is Both Safer and Healthier

June 11, 2026

SPOKANE, Wash. — The Safe and Healthy Spokane Task Force released its recommendations today, delivering a community-built roadmap to transform the Spokane region’s approach to public safety and behavioral health. The report calls for an integrated system in which justice facilities, crisis response, diversion, treatment, housing, and workforce investments are planned together as each makes the others work, and none can succeed alone.

A community is only as safe as it is healthy, and only as healthy as it is safe. That conviction runs through every recommendation in this report. For too long, Spokane’s systems have operated in silos and people with untreated mental illness and substance use disorders cycle repeatedly through the jail, the emergency room, and the street. The Task Force was convened to develop a path for the community to break that cycle.

The recommendations are organized across four interconnected areas: a foundational coordination structure, cross-system alignment, new and scaled programs and services, and a network of modern facilities.

“Every day, our hospitals and the dedicated people who serve within them, are on the front lines of these crises,” said Matt Albright, Executive Director of Operations & Service Lines for Providence Inland Northwest and Safe and Healthy Spokane Task Force Member. “Doctors, nurses, and care teams witness not only the medical needs, but the human stories behind them. We see firsthand when someone falls through the cracks or when support systems are missing. This roadmap is about changing that. It is about building the kind of coordinated system where people get the right care at the right time, and where our community's resources are used in a way that actually produces better outcomes for everyone."

A Foundation Built to Last: The Cross-Sector Coordinating Council

At the center of the Task Force’s recommendations is a call for a Cross-Sector Implementation Accountability and Coordination Council — the foundation the Task Force believes is essential to turning these recommendations into lasting change. The coordinating council is the organizing structure that will make cross-sector collaboration real and enduring and prevent this work from stalling the way past efforts have.

The Recommendations

The Task Force’s 14 recommendations span the full continuum of a coordinated justice and behavioral health system:

Foundation: A Sustainable Approach to Accountability and Coordination

• A.1: Establish a Cross-Sector Implementation Accountability and Coordination

Council Cross-System Coordination: Align Public Safety, Behavioral Health, and Housing Systems

• B.1: Create and Leverage a Robust Data and Accountability System

• B.2: Formalize Partnerships to Support Upstream Prevention

• B.3: Integrate Peers at Each Step in the System

• B.4: Formalize Procedures Across the System That Support Integrated Care Planning and Process: “Warm Handoffs”

New or Scaled Programs, Services, and Processes: Expand Capacity at the Highest-Impact Pressure Points

• C.1: Scale Alternative Crisis Response Models

• C.2: Establish Coordinated Intake and Assessment with Shared Standards Across Entry Points

• C.3: Strengthen Pre-Trial Diversion, Ensuring Both Support and Accountability

• C.4: Focus Interventions on High Utilizers of the Criminal Justice and Health Systems

• C.5: Expand Culturally Responsive Supports and Services for Targeted Prevention Populations

• C.6: Establish a Youth and Young Adult Prevention and Response System

• C.7: Make Strategic Workforce Investment Across the Justice and Behavioral Health System

Facilities: Develop and Modernize Physical Infrastructure to Support an Integrated System

• D.1: Invest in Modern, Integrated Justice Facilities and the Coordinated Network of Community-Based Facilities That Advance Public Safety and Community Health

• D.2: Strengthen Housing Options “Public safety requires both clear accountability for criminal conduct and evidence-based practices proven to reduce recidivism,” said Judge Tony Hazel, Presiding Judge, Spokane County Superior Court and Safe and Healthy Spokane Task Force Member. “These recommendations reflect that balanced, results-driven approach—holding individuals responsible while implementing strategies that break cycles of reoffending, protect victims and the community, and produce lasting improvements for families and Spokane. A safer community and a healthier community are not competing goals; together they deliver stronger, measurable public safety outcomes.”

A Community-Built Roadmap, Ready for Action

The Task Force’s recommendations are the product of a nine-month process that engaged community members, convened dozens of listening sessions, expert briefings, and site visits. They reflect hard conversations and a shared conviction: that public safety and community health rise and fall together, and that lasting progress depends on how the parts of the system work as a whole.

The opportunity in front of this region is bigger than any single facility, program, or ballot measure. It is the chance to build a truly integrated system that makes Spokane both healthier and safer.

"This work stands on years of effort by people who cared about these issues long before this Task Force convened,” said Dr. Melissa Mace, NAACP Spokane Executive Director and Safe and Healthy Spokane Task Force Member. “The work of this task force is a testament to the effectiveness of communication and understanding that the issues of today affect us all. People from different siloed systems did this work together; we came in with different perspectives and stayed at the table even when it was difficult. What we produced is a shared roadmap for the region to move forward with. We can no longer wait. The time is now."

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About the Safe and Healthy Spokane Task Force

The Safe and Healthy Spokane Task Force is a community-led initiative committed to developing actionable, data-informed recommendations that enhance public safety, support behavioral health, and strengthen system coordination across Spokane County. The Task Force was convened in 2025 by a coalition of Greater Spokane Inc., Greater Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Spokane Partnership, Waters Meet Foundation and the Avista Foundation, and includes more than 35 members representing law enforcement, the courts, behavioral health, healthcare, housing, business, labor, Tribal nations, and people with lived experience. The full report is available at safehealthyspokane.org/recommendations

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