Archive for the ‘Pretrial Services’ Category

Let’s Set the Record Straight

Thursday, 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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Source

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

A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

Thursday, 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 | 1,024 Comments »

Sean R. Thomas: Stop ‘catch and release’

Thursday, 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.

Source

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Posted in Florida Bail Bonds, Florida Bail Legislation, Gainesville Bail Bonds, Pretrial Services | 1,380 Comments »

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

Monday, April 5th, 2010

ALEC Calls on Florida Lawmakers to Pass SB 782 and HB 445

Washington D.C. - The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) today released the findings of a recent Mason-Dixon poll showing that Florida voters strongly favor enacting a statewide law that would limit the use of their tax dollars to paying only for the release of indigent defendants who have been charged with a non-violent crime.  Statewide, 71% supported limiting the use of tax dollars, while 22% were opposed and 7% were undecided.

Currently, the Florida Legislature is considering Senate Bill 782 by Senator John Thrasher (R-St. Augustine) and House Bill 445 by Representative Chris Dorworth (R-Lake Mary), pertaining to changing Florida Statute, as it relates to the government-run pretrial release programs.  SB 782 and HB 445 requires that the defendant meet certain specified criteria in order to be eligible for pretrial release; narrows who is eligible for taxpayer-funded pretrial services/release programs; and moves more criminal offenders to a private, regulated and licensed bail system, while still allowing for the continued use of pretrial programs for non-violent, first-time, non-dangerous indigent offenders.

ALEC has made reforming government-run bail a priority and believes this legislation will benefit Floridians.

Support for the measure has widened to the Florida’s voters, as by the Mason-Dixon poll:

94% 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.

·     87% 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.

·     86% felt a criminal defendant that has been previously convicted of a violent crime should not be allowed to be released from jail using tax dollars, even if the court rules that they are indigent.

·     Only 15% of state voters were aware that 28 Florida counties allow criminals to be released from jail using taxpayer dollars instead of paying for their own release while they await trial.

  • Support for the measure cuts across party lines, with 65% of Democrats, 77% of Republicans and 72% of independentsfavoring such a law.

ALEC’s Public Safety Task Force Director Michael Hough said, “It is clear that taxpayers do not want to be left on the hook to pay the bill for releasing potentially dangerous criminals from jail. Pretrial release agencies should strictly serve the indigent, and commercial bail does a better job of protecting the public from dangerous criminals, while saving taxpayer dollars.”

The poll was conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, Inc. of Washington, D.C. from March 23, 2010, through March 25, 2010, with a total of 625 registered Florida voters.  The margin of error is no more than plus or minus 4 percentage points. The poll is available here http://www.alec.org/am/pdf/cied/Mason-Dixon_poll.pdf

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Posted in Florida Bail Bonds, Florida Bail Legislation, Nationwide Bail Bonds, Pretrial Services | 1,229 Comments »

Pasco County Eliminates Pretrial Release

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

Overview
SB 782 (Thrasher) and HB 445 (Dorworth) put modest limits on who is eligible for government
funded pretrial release (PTR) programs. Opponents of this bill have said that these limits would
increase the county jail population. This is not true.

Pasco County Findings
Due to budget constraints, in 2007 Pasco County completely eliminated its government run PTR
program, saving taxpayers $348,000 per year. In 2008, the county’s jail population increase
was a negligible 5 bed days per year (an increase from 1,262 to 1,267)…a less than 0.4% increase.
However, when considering the population growth of the county during that same time, there was
a net decrease of 2.2% in per capita bed days. Per capita occupancy went DOWN, not up!

Sources: Florida Department of Corrections, Index to Statistics and Publication; US Census population estimates.
“Due to budget cuts, we completely cut out the pretrial release program in Pasco County.
As a result, we saved taxpayers nearly $350,000 last year and haven’t seen any
noticeable change in our jail population. I have had great success in doing away with the
pretrial release program.”
–Pasco County Sheriff Bob White
“We have had great success with the Pre-trial Program being eliminated in Pasco
County.”
–Pasco County Commissioner Michael Cox

Conclusion
The complete elimination of the taxpayer financed pretrial release program in Pasco County had
no significant impact on jail population. If any impact must be drawn, one could conclude that
eliminating the program actually reduced the per capita jail population while saving taxpayers
nearly $350,000 per year.

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Posted in Florida Bail Bonds, Pretrial Services | 1,183 Comments »

What is Pre-Trial Release

Monday, March 1st, 2010

We found a video that talks about Pre-trial release and how ineffective it really is.  Pre-trial release is nothing more than another government program that costs taxpayers money.  Please watch the video and leave your comments.

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Posted in Florida Bail Bonds, Pretrial Services | 1,478 Comments »