Let’s Set the Record Straight

December 15th, 2011

The Pretrial Justice Institute is distributing a webinar again basically calling for local governments to abolish money bail and instead institute government-run bail programs that are more lenient and apt to let criminals out of jail for free.

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Here are some of their arguments:

Uncertainty about release since no in/out decision is made

  • 47% of felony defendants who have money bail set are released, 53% stay in jail
  • Percent of felony defendants who have money bail set and who are released ranges from 16% to 85%
  • Defendants with access to the money can purchase their release, those without cannot

An “out” decision is made – no uncertainty about release.

  • Release is not dependent upon the defendant’s access to money.

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A letter we posted from Jerry Watson a couple of weeks ago refuted this well. In it he said, “The key plank in the platform of today’s Pretrial Release Agency’s campaign to justify their existence is their attempt to assign the cause of jail overcrowding to how the bail system operates. They claim that adjustments making it easier for persons to be released from pretrial custody would automatically solve overpopulation in the jail. Such an approach is fatally flawed and should not even be considered for very good reasons.

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When a person is arrested and the court is making its bail decision, how many people are already in the jail should not even be a consideration. The Pretrial Release champions concoct theories dedicated to the purpose of “striking the proper balance between bail amounts, jail population, and community safety.” One of those three, jail population, doesn’t belong. While a defendant’s bail amount and the court’s concern for community safety are inextricably connected and should certainly drive the court’s decision, jail population should not be a part of that equation.

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Considering existing jail population as an incident to the setting of bail in a new case is fraught with legal improprieties. The Eighth Amendment to our United States Constitution simply says that there shall be no excessive bail. When asked exactly what that means, the courts have consistently told us that bail is “excessive” if it is set at an amount higher than that reasonably calculated to ensure the defendant’s return to court as directed.”

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Furthermore, jail populations in America have actually been declining. In fact, according to the Department of Justice, the number of individuals in jail has fallen from 785,536 in 2008 to 748,728 in 2010. Nationally, jail populations are at their lowest levels since 2005. The jail capacity rate is ten percentage points lower today than it was in 2006, falling from 96.3 percent to only 86.4 percent.

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This is attributable to a number of factors including a falling crime rate and an increased use of private-sector bail. From the Department of Justice we know the use of commercial bail bonds has increased from 25 percent of releases in 1990 to over 40 percent in 2004. More people are contracting with private-sector bail agents to secure their release from jail, and the system does a good job of swiftly and safely releasing defendants from jail prior to their trial. If PJI’s criticism about the unfairness of commercial bail was correct, then jail populations would have increased and not decreased.

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For years government bureaucrats have promoted the idea of eliminating bail bondsmen and encouraging the government to make the decision to release criminals on their own recognizance or on a government-issued deposit bonds. The result of this government-run system has been predictable: a large number of criminals failed to appear in court and government officials failed to track them down.

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Posted in Florida Bail Bonds, Florida Bail Legislation, Nationwide Bail Bonds, Pretrial Services | Comments Off

Getting someone out of jail fast

August 23rd, 2011

If you want to bail someone out of jail as quickly as possible, the internet is your best friend. You need to go straight away and find a bail bond agency online, instead of spending hours looking in phone books or classified ads. You should take a quick look at a few different bail bond agencies and find one that you like. As long as they have a good website and are fairly transparent about their business, you should be fine. Your next step is to call them and tell them that you want to get the process underway. They will ask you for some obvious details, and you will need to provide some sort of proof of identification, so make sure you have that beforehand otherwise you’ll have an inevitable delay.

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Another thing to make sure you have with you beforehand is the 10% premium that is payable in order to get the process underway. You don’t need to pay this in cash, but you’ll need to be able provide payment before anything can move any further, so make sure you can afford it and you know how you are going to pay for it. You should also consider what you are going to use as collateral to cover the rest of the bail amount – make sure you can provide full collateral otherwise there will be delays as the bail bond agency tries to help you make up the full amount through collateral.

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Bailing someone out of jail in a matter of hours is perfectly possible, and you should be able to navigate the process without too many difficulties. Although speed is obviously important to you, you need to make sure you remain reasonably calm at all times, otherwise you might make a rash decision that you regret in the future.

Posted in Florida Bail Bonds, Nationwide Bail Bonds | 1,064 Comments »

A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

March 24th, 2011
Please take the time to read this update from Bail Works.  How is this possible?  How can it be that a fellow Florida surety agent can back members who oppose limiting taxpayer funded pre-trial release.  Your comments are much appreciated on this subject.
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Tuesday SB 372, a bill to limit those who are eligible for government-funded pretrial release, was temporarily postponed in a Senate committee. The sponsor, Senator Ellyn Bogdanoff was unavoidably detained in another hearing.
The postponement did not discourage some heated testimony from the bill’s opponents. Most notable were Broward County Commissioner Stacy Ritter (who called the bill “The Bail Bondsmen Relief Act”) as well as Pinellas County Sheriff Jim Coats.
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It is noteworthy that almost none of the testimony was about SB 372 nor about who should qualify for pretrial release, nor the eligibility requirements being proposed. Instead, testimony was largely a diatribe about the ills of private surety bail and how government funded pretrial release is superior.
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The assertions made by the bureaucrat critics of the bail industry were almost fictionalized with numerous qualifiers like “it is estimated” or “sometimes”. And much of the commentary were road swipes at the entire industry.
For example, Sheriff Coats stated:
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“the only place a criminal justice system or a liberty decision is governed by a profit-making entity that will or will not take your business is the bail bond industry…”
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Sheriff Coats went on to say that some in our industry were actively opposing this measure and were standing with him. Standing with Sheriff Coats were representatives of the Florida Association of Counties and another surety agent.
One further note; it is one thing for there to be disagreements between colleagues on approach or on the merits of a particular piece of legislation or even whether or not to support such legislation…but the fact that a representative of the surety industry stood shoulder to shoulder yesterday with Stacy Ritter and Jim Coats while they bashed our industry and maligned our profession is both disheartening and disappointing.
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The role of sureties is not merely to support its agents and advocate for their success but to honor the bail profession and a system that has stood the test of time.
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Tuesday was merely a postponement of a new law that will help preserve the bail profession, but one surety agent’s overt support of one who demeans its very existence is an insult to the agents who have lived and died in the line of duty.

Posted in Florida Bail Bonds, Florida Bail Legislation, Nationwide Bail Bonds, Pretrial Services | 1,018 Comments »

Mason-Dixon Poll Finds Florida Voters Oppose Use of Tax Dollars for Bail

March 17th, 2011

WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 16, 2011) – The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) today released the findings of a recent Mason-Dixon poll showing that Florida voters oppose using taxpayer dollars to bail criminals out of jail, as opposed to defendants posting their own bail. Statewide, 71 percent opposed using tax dollars to bail criminals out of jail, while 18 percent supported and 11 percent were undecided.

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ALEC’s Public Safety Resident Fellow Michael Hough said, “Last November voters sent a clear message at the polls that they wanted elected officials to cut wasteful government spending so it’s no surprise that voters so strongly opposed this criminal welfare program. Floridians are strongly opposed to taxpayer provided bail bonds for criminals who can afford to pay for their release from jail.”

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Floridians’ opposition is reflected in the poll results:

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• 78 percent felt criminal defendants who have failed to appear in court on a previous offense should not be allowed to be released from jail using tax dollars.

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• 75 percent felt that if a criminal defendant can afford to pay their own bail for release from jail, they should not be allowed to be released from jail using tax dollars.

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• Support for theses measure cuts across party lines with 79 percent of Republicans, 65 percent of Democrats, and 67 percent of Independents opposing the use of taxpayer dollars to bail non-indigent offenders out of jail.

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The poll was conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, Inc. of Washington, D.C. from March 3, 2011, through March 5, 2011, with a total of 625 registered Florida voters.  The margin of error is no more than plus or minus 4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

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ALEC has made reforming government-run bail a priority and supports policies that protect the taxpayer dollar and public safety. For more information please contact Michael Hough, mhough@alec.org.
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The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is the nation’s largest nonpartisan individual membership association of state legislators, with nearly 2,000 state legislators across the nation and more than 100 alumni members in Congress. ALEC’s mission is to promote free markets, individual liberty, and federalism through its model legislation in the states.

Posted in Florida Bail Bonds | 537 Comments »

Choosing a bail bondsman

November 15th, 2010

Choosing a Florida bail bondsman really doesn’t have to be that difficult. It used to be, granted, but it’s now an incredibly easy process that almost anyone could do. All you’ve got to do is make some quick searches on the internet and soon you’ll have a shortlist of hundreds of different bail bond agencies who could all help you. What to do with that shortlist is another matter, so let’s try to see if we can narrow your choices down until you’ve only got a few excellent bail bond agencies left.

You need to make sure any bail bond agency that you are considering has an excellent website. It doesn’t have to be flashy, but it should be professional, and it should provide you with a great deal of information about their business. If they aren’t giving you any information, and their website looks like it’s just been thrown together in 5 minutes, then you should just cross them off your list.

The next thing to do is find out how to contact them. If you can talk to them on the phone, do so, while if they only offer you the option of e-mailing them, they might not be for you. The good thing about talking on the phone is that you get instant answers to your questions, and you can tell just from that short conversation whether they take their business seriously. It’s amazing how some businesses completely neglect customer service when it comes to talking to people on the phone, and if you aren’t satisfied with the conversation you have, you won’t be satisfied with the services they provide you.

Once you’ve spoken to them on the phone, you’re going to want to narrow your list down even further. Keep looking at their websites, and if you can be bothered, do some searching on the internet for their specific business. Try to find reviews or testimonials, or even just news, about their business. If you find anything negative, you have to weigh up whether you believe it, whether you think it’s serious, and whether you think the bail bond agency is going to help you.

Just remember, people write bad reviews on the internet for companies they’ve never even dealt with, so make sure that you take anything written online with a pinch of salt. Of course, if there’s an overwhelming feeling of negativity about the agency, then your best bet is just to move on to the next agency.

If you ignore any of these little tips, you’re probably going to end up regretting it. The biggest mistake people make in the bail bonds industry is ignoring their gut instinct, and making rash decisions when it comes to choosing a bail bond agency.  If you make the right choice, the process will be a complete breeze and you won’t have to worry about mistakes or extra hassle. Don’t forget to be sceptical about everything, and only choose an agency that you personally are happy with, not just one that has good reviews.

Posted in Florida Bail Bonds, Nationwide Bail Bonds | 894 Comments »

Federal Bail Bonds? Not as confusing as you may think

September 18th, 2010

Federal Bail Bonds are basically the process by which someone who has committed a federal crime can be bailed out of jail. They are very similar to normal state or county bail bonds, they just generally involve larger amounts of money and a lot more legal work due to the serious nature of the cases. They aren’t that difficult to understand, especially if you know how the bail bonds process works normally, since there are only a couple of major differences that you need to know about federal bail bonds. These differences involve the collateral that you provide, and the amount of money you have to pay up front. Aside from those differences, the process for you will be almost identical to the process of normal state or country bail bonds.

The first difference is that you will have to pay a 15% premium at the beginning of the process. This premium is paid as 15% of the full bail amount. This can sometimes be a large sum of money, so it’s perfectly possible that the bail bond agency will be able to arrange with you some sort of short term loan. However, you shouldn’t count on this, and you have to expect to pay the full 15% before the process can be started in earnest.

The other major difference is the collateral process, which is slightly more complex when it comes to federal bail bonds. Because of the higher amounts of money involved, and also the risk that comes with bailing a federal criminal out of jail, you will have to attend a nebia hearing. This nebia hearing is fairly simple, but you’re probably going to want to have some representation with you. This representation can be provided by the bail bond agency. The hearing will assess whether you have the necessary collateral to cover the full amount of the bail bond. If you don’t, then the court will decline your bail application, it’s as simple as that.

Once you’ve completed the nebia hearing, and the court are satisfied that you have the necessary collateral to cover the full amount of the bail, your work is pretty much done. You may have to sign a few papers, and you might have to wait a little while for the bail bond agency to complete all the necessary work, but after that the inmate release process will begin. You can’t affect the inmate release process, no one can, so you may have to wait a little while, but be patient and eventually the arrestee will be released on bail.

The only way you can really go wrong with this process is if you don’t choose a decent bail bond agency. You need an agency who is going to help you complete the process and will handle the difficult parts with ease. If they don’t have a huge amount of experience, then you shouldn’t be dealing with them, and they should be able to offer you advice about your situation.

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Posted in Federal Bail Bonds, Florida Bail Bonds, Nationwide Bail Bonds | 541 Comments »

Co-signing a Florida bail bond

July 27th, 2010

Co-signing a bail bond essentially means that you are the responsible party and you are liable to pay the full amount of the bail bond if forfeiture occurs.  No matter if its bail bonds in Clearwater, Tampa, Orlando, or anywhere in Flroida; It’s a pretty big deal, but you shouldn’t get too hung up about the actual signing of the bail bond and the feeling of “responsibility”. In these cases, your main responsibility is to yourself. You owe it to yourself to make sure that nothing goes wrong and that you are not forced to submit large amounts of collateral or money to pay for something that is not your fault. If the arrestee skips out on their bail, then you are liable to pay, and so you owe it to yourself to make sure that does not happen.

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You can do this by keeping track of the arrestee and making sure that you know where they are at all times, especially in the days leading up to their appearance in court. People make stupid decisions sometimes and it can be very easy for a defendant to panic and bolt when the court date is looming and they are worried about their future. It’s your job to ensure this doesn’t happen, so you need to do everything in your power to stop that. Talk to the defendant and make sure they understand their responsibility to you, and how much more trouble they will be in if they don’t fulfil the conditions of their bail bond.

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Co-Signing Gainesville bail bonds (or anywhere else)  is a big deal if you are taking a risk with your money, which is a bad idea. Most of the time, however, you won’t be risking it because you should be able to trust the person you are bailing out of jail. If you can’t trust them, you have to decide whether it’s a risk you are willing to take.

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Posted in Florida Bail Bonds, Gainesville Bail Bonds, Indemnitor's | 526 Comments »

Co-signing a Bail Bond

June 14th, 2010

Co-signing a bail bond essentially means that you are the responsible party and you are liable to pay the full amount of the bail bond if forfeiture occurs. It’s a pretty big deal, but you shouldn’t get too hung up about the actual signing of the bail bond and the feeling of “responsibility”. In these cases, your main responsibility is to yourself. You owe it to yourself to make sure that nothing goes wrong and that you are not forced to submit large amounts of collateral or money to pay for something that is not your fault. If the arrestee skips out on their bail, then you are liable to pay, and so you owe it to yourself to make sure that does not happen.

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You can do this by keeping track of the arrestee and making sure that you know where they are at all times, especially in the days leading up to their appearance in court. People make stupid decisions sometimes and it can be very easy for a defendant to panic and bolt when the court date is looming and they are worried about their future. It’s your job to ensure this doesn’t happen, so you need to do everything in your power to stop that. Talk to the defendant and make sure they understand their responsibility to you, and how much more trouble they will be in if they don’t fulfill the conditions of their bail bond.

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Co-Signing a Florida bail bond is a big deal if you are taking a risk with your money, which is a bad idea. Most of the time, however, you won’t be risking it because you should be able to trust the person you are bailing out of jail. If you can’t trust them, you have to decide whether it’s a risk you are willing to take.

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Posted in Florida Bail Bonds, Florida Bail Legislation, Indemnitor's | 1,016 Comments »

The REAL Florida Bail Bondsman

May 27th, 2010

Posted in Florida Bail Bonds, Videos | 563 Comments »

Sean R. Thomas: Stop ‘catch and release’

April 29th, 2010

By Sean R. Thomas
Special to The Sun

Published: Thursday, April 29, 2010 at 6:01 a.m.

For the past 15 years I have worked in Alachua County as a bail agent, and I have posted thousands of bail bonds for defendants. Using Court Services’ own formula, that translates to tens of millions of dollars in savings of incarceration costs for the taxpayer.

I have never received any taxpayer money from Alachua County. However, I have paid county bond forfeitures, totaling $29,000, for four defendants I could never locate.

That’s right, four of my bond clients in 15 years could not be found! I would challenge any pretrial release program to match that record.

The bottom line is this: bail bonding works. The reason is accountability — we get people to show up (or we pay big money), and unlike pretrial release programs, we will locate, arrest and return bond skips to jail, and we do this far better than any tax-based program around.

The courts, sheriff, state attorney and county commissioners can make all the arguments in the world for these public option programs, but the bottom line is, we taxpayers pay dearly for them!

It amazes me that as county and state budgets are strained to the point of busting, we sit here fighting over legislation that pits government’s expenditures in the millions vs. private tax-free alternative-bail, which has worked very well in this country since its inception.

Pretrial programs are being advertised as a cheap solution to expensive incarceration, and the claim that only low-risk offenders are put in them is simply not the truth.

Pretrial release takes taxpayer money and uses it to fund the release of criminals back on the streets with absolutely no guarantee that they will ever come back to court.

These pretrial programs are funded by the same general fund that directly competes for money that could be used for police, fire, teachers, etc.

Pretrial programs have become a way for the court to rationalize releasing huge numbers of people from custody.

Pretrial has this nice PR platform saying that they can supervise individuals for a quarter the cost, but in truth, we taxpayer are spending millions for them to “supervise” just a few thousand people, and of those, a huge percentage will fail to return for court, or will violate some pretrial program regulation and be returned to jail.

Alachua county has thousands of warrants on people wanted for not coming to court (14,000 active warrants at last count, and climbing every day). The vast majority of theses individuals were released on their own recognizance by judges, or were recoged into one of these “supervised” programs.

It was no surprise to me that the only county in this part of Florida to see an increase in crime was Alachua County. What is surprising is that neither the sheriff nor the state attorney, nor do many of our county’s judges, seem to have any problem with our judicial system’s “catch and release” philosophy.

Sean R. Thomas lives in Gainesville.

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Posted in Florida Bail Bonds, Florida Bail Legislation, Gainesville Bail Bonds, Pretrial Services | 1,378 Comments »

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