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Some of the research materials that Joy Gilfilen used to illustrate how the side-effects of national mass incarceration have directly impacted our local community are included below.  The local Executive Branch of our community, after we became a Charter County started running the County as a corporation and used the jail and justice system as the business model for the County to stimulate business. Whether this was done on purpose or unwittingly, the problem was accelerated when 9/11 happened, and the technology revolution kicked into high gear.  Our world economy became focused on survival and the expansion of the “disaster capitalism” and this has affected all of us.  We are all in effect of what was predicted as “future shock” back in the 70’s as we moved from an agrarian economy, into an industrial, and then into the technology world.

Joy’s Overarching Strategy for Reversing the Impacts of LOCAL Mass Incarceration:

Read about how we, the people, can implement a local, living economy to replace a bloated, tax addicted, punishment driven business model that has gutted our local economy for decades.  The basis of the work is well researched, and this booklet was written by Joy Gilfilen, to explain the problem to Whatcom County voters in 2015.

Joy explains in this booklet Stop-Punish-Start-Rebuild-EBook-08252015Final-CenterC-1 how we are stuck in a 21st century socio-economic-civic down spiral controlled by the national mass incarceration industry.  The industry uses taxes to underwrite the expansion of jail and prison real estate, at the expense of taxpayers.

To stop the downwards trends, Joy Gilfilen ran for Whatcom County Executive and wrote this report.  It was a tool she could use to force the economic conversation to the public’s view – for the Whatcom County Sheriff, the Whatcom County Executive, and the Whatcom County Prosecutor at the time were compelling the lawmakers in our community to pass a tax to build the first phase of a 2400 bed jail industry expansion project.  The project was thinly disguised as a local jail.  In this report, Joy explains the problem, so that local business and civic leaders could see the problem and vote in opposition.  The jail tax was rejected.  Bottomline, this report is still valid today, after the sales tax was again rejected in 2017.

Since that time, the Whatcom County Executive has been fined by the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission for campaign violations relating to a mailer these three officials published and sent to the voters that was found to be illegal; the Whatcom County Prosecutor retired and has been replaced by his 2nd in command; and the Whatcom County Sheriff is up for election.  This is exactly why Joy Gilfilen seeks to be the “new Sheriff in town” – to implement these reforms.