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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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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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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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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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A big bail bond agency will be able to give you complete peace of mind. It’s a bit like putting the whole bail bonds process on autopilot – you just give them the necessary details, and they do all the hard work for you. You can often find high quality bail bond agencies online, and you’ll be able to talk to someone from that agency before you begin working with them. Be sure to explain your situation and ask any questions that you might have; if you are happy with the answers they give you, the chances are you’re going to be happy with the service they provide when you work with them.

Make sure to stay calm throughout the process and not make too much of a fuss. There is nothing worse for an agency than someone who is panicking and impatient while they are working hard to process the bail bond. Good agencies will help you relax and give you peace of mind, but don’t rely on this, they are often too busy and it’s only those that truly care about customer service who will help you in this area.

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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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The thing is, if collateral wasn’t provided, then you and the arrestee could simply try and run away, leaving the bail bondsman in Hillsborough County to pay the bill for the full bail amount. Having to do this can be financially crippling for a bail bond agency, so it’s important that they aren’t taking too many risks by dealing with a case like yours. They will ask for collateral unless they can be absolutely sure that there is no risk involved, which is unlikely. Without collateral, the whole bail bonds industry would have died many years ago, so we should be thankful that there is such a simple way of solving the issue of risk.

You may be asked to attend a nebia hearing if the arrestee was involved in a federal crime. This nebia hearing will simply ensure that you have enough collateral to full cover the cost of the bail. It is a longer process than with normal state or county bail bonds, primarily because there is a higher risk involved with federal cases.

Collateral is all about eliminating risk; if everything goes smoothly, then you won’t have any problems to deal with, and you’ll get your collateral back once the conditions of the bail are fulfilled. If you can’t be sure that the conditions of the bail will be fulfilled, then you should perhaps reconsider providing the collateral in the first place.

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