As jurisdictions are working to end secured money bail arguments are beginning over their replacement. Judges in California, who recently passed a no-cash bail law, will be given ‘risk assessment’ tools to work from.

While imposing pretrial detention ought to be treated as a last resort, bail-reform advocates see the assessment tool as a workaround for states who want to walk the fence.

Jurists are being urged to reconsider their use of pretrial risk assessments instruments.. While seemingly neutral, advocates claim the tools threaten to intensify unwarranted discrepancies in the justice system while providing a misleading and undeserved show of impartiality.

Advocates for bail reform are pushing six points to make sure the assessment tool remains accurate, fair and transparent.

Six Points

Point One

Advocates claim the instruments should be designed in ways to reduce unwarranted racial disparities. The advocates want the designers to test ways to avoid a pattern of bias or unfairness.

Point Two

The documents must be developed with input from the community and re-validated regularly. The pretrial assessment tool selected should be designed to reflect local data and evaluated for anti-racist results in the community where it is used.

Point Three

If the risk assessment tool does not encourage immediate release, it must never recommend detention and should suggest a pretrial release hearing. The tools should significantly increased rates of pretrial release and meet the needs of accused persons before trial. They should reflect the U.S. Constitutional guarantee of a presumption of innocence.

Point Four

Pretrial detention should never be imposed except through an adversarial hearing which must be held promptly in determining if the accused individual presents a substantial risk to the community. The prosecution must be required to demonstrate the circumstances and facts found in establishing a clear and convincing evidence of the individual being a risk.

Point Five

The risk assessments must examine the chances of success upon release and must be reported in clear and concrete terms.  The tools should predict events during the length of the trial — not merely after the resolution of the open case.

Point Six

The assessment tools must be transparent and open to challenge by the accused’s attorney. Everyone must be given the chance to inspect the risk assessment tools and see how it works and the attorney must be allowed the chance to inspect the inputs used to calculate their client’s particular categorization or risk score.

The Takeaway

If in use, a risk assessment instrument should be formatted and used in ways to reduce and eliminate unwarranted racial injustices across the criminal justice system.

Four decades after starting reform, California has abolished money bail, opponents aren’t happy and Nevada activists are buoyed.

In August 2018, California became the only state to abolish cash bail. The state will replace it with a risk assessment methodology in October 2019. Criminal justice system reform groups have been busy campaigning to end cash bail and shrink the number of individuals held in jail while they wait for their trial dates.

In March 2018, Atlanta, Georgia implemented its ‘no cash bail’ policy for some non-violent misdemeanor offenses.

“The Chief of Corrections shall not accept cash bonds on any offenses under the jurisdiction of the Atlanta Municipal Court except as set forth in Section 62-31 (b), (c), (d) and (f) of this Chapter,” the ordinance states.

Activists in Nevada were uplifted by the announcement.

What Is Cash Bail?

In most American states, an individual arrested can deposit money with the court to guarantee they won’t flee before their trial. The full amount of bail can range from thousands to millions of dollars. Defendants who can’t afford the full amount may pay a percentage to a bail bonds agent. The agent posts the bond and keeps the percentage as their fee.

Who Wants To Abolish Cash Bail — And Why?

Civil libertarians and social justice groups have been pushing for years to abolish money bail. Several high-profile cases have helped drive the campaign.

In New York City, Kalief Browder, a 16-year-old who lives in the Bronx spent almost three years behind bars awaiting trial. Browder had been arrested for an alleged theft worth $700. Browder could not pay and his family couldn’t afford the bail bondsman’s fee of $900. Browder spent two of the three years in solitary. He later committed suicide.

More recent, a San Francisco man spent a year behind bars after stealing $5 and a bottle of cologne. His bail was set at $350,000 and he spent the better part of a year in jail.

|The high costs can be financially ruinous for low-income families. Defendants often spend long periods awaiting trial for minor offenses as they lose jobs and housing. Often they also lose custody of their children. The high bail amounts lead many to plead guilty instead of waiting for trial. As Blacks, Latinos and Native Americans are more apt to be arrested, they are also disproportionately affected by cash bail.

Who’s In Favor Of Cash Bail?

Almost no one — except the agency which makes money from it. Many politicians and judges worry about releasing more people while waiting on court dates.

What Does The California Law Do?

The law gets rid of cash bail in exchange for “pretrial assessments” which classify a person’s risk of re-offending while awaiting trial. People with a “low” risk assessment will be released. Anyone at “substantial” risk is jailed until arraignment. Those who come in with “medium” risk will be reviewed by jurisdiction for either release or jail time.

The law also creates a ‘presumption’ that persons will remain in jail if they are accused of violent felonies, sex crimes or a third DUI in 10 years. Anyone who has broken the conditions of pretrial release in the previous five years will not be set free under the new rule.

What Is Nevada Doing?

Persons working to reform Nevada’s system are eyeing California’s step as a move in the right direction that would benefit The Silver State.

“This is a trend we are seeing,” said Laura Martin, the director of Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada. “Other states are watching and seeing what they can be doing instead of tossing people behind bars.”

“If you look at the Clark County records, you can see examples of persons in jail for unsafe lane changes,” Martin added.

The Takeaway

Ozzie Fumo, D-Las Vegas, has said he will propose legislation during the 2019 session to ask judges to consider non-monetary options before considering bail. Fumo’s proposed bill will not call for the legislation to end the cash bail system.

Despite being highly regulated, bail bondsman can find themselves in trouble. Licensed by the State Department of Insurance, penalties can be heavy for bonding agency owners and bondsman when they break the law they are sworn to uphold.

California

The California Department of Insurance gave a notice of noncompliance to Carlsbad-based Seaview Insurance Company recently. The agency charged the company with failing to maintain eligibility guidelines which resulted in discrimination against state consumers.

Seaview, the surety for Aladdin Bail Bonds, lacked specific guidelines for collateral and didn’t provide sufficient guidelines for down-payment of bond premiums and payment plants.

By not maintaining objective and specific guidelines, Seaview is in violation of the state’s insurance code. Without that information, applicants for a bail bond are denied equal access to the mechanism which allows tens of thousands to get out of jail pending trial.

Florida

Get arrested in Miami-Dade County, you’ll probably end up at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center — TGK — near the airport. Google TGK and you won’t find the official website where money can be deposited into an inmate account, but instead to an almost identical website for a bail bonds company called TGK Bail Bonds.

The site is confusing on purpose. The site duplicates everything about the government’s inmate search page.

“We’ve been dealing with this for years,” says Juan Diasgranados, the spokesman for Miami-Dade County Corrections and Rehab.

“This person has done this before. We filed a complaint and settled in court. They were told not to do it again.”

Patricia Fernandez owns the company and is listed as one of the directors of the Miami-Dade Bail Association.

Tennessee

A Knoxville bail bondsman was arrested following indictment on tax evasion charges. The Tennessee Department of Revenue arrested William Edward Walker, 52, at his business, All American Bail Bonds.

Walker will be going on trial for 13 charges of tax evasion and one count of theft of property greater than $10,000. The indictment claims Walker didn’t remit more than $12,000 in bail-bond tax he owed to the state.

A Class E felony in Tennessee, each count brings a maximum sentence of two years behind bars and a maximum fine of $3,000.

The theft charge is a Class C felon and carries a maximum sentence of six years behind bars and a max fine of $10,000.

Walker was released on a $25,000 bond.

Nevada

The Nevada Division of Insurance is charged with maintaining the integrity of law enforcement as related to business entities conducting insurance related business in Nevada.

To own a bail bonds business in Nevada, a person must have apply and qualify for a license. There are currently four types of bail licenses in Nevada and each plays a specific role in a transaction surrounding bail.

Bail Agent & Bail Agency

The individual holding this license is authorized to post bail bonds. Duties include determining the risk of posting a bond.

Bail Solicitor

A bail solicitor who is hired by a bail bondsman to solicit bail business on behalf of the agent.

Bail Enforcement Agent

The person contracted or hired to enforce the custody terms or to locate the individual or apprehend a bail jumper and surrender the individual to law enforcement custody.

General Agent

An individual appointed by a surety to supervise, or manage, a bail bond business written by bail agents.

Qualification and Fees

Before being issued a license, the individual must meet the qualifications set out in Nevada Law. Complete requirements can be found here.

The Takeaway

Locally owned and operated, we are committed to providing personal first class service and will guide you through the bail process to obtain the defendant’s release in the most professional manner possible. With our extensive knowledge of local courts, we will help guide you through the process and deliver the best bail bonds out there.

At any moment, half a million Americans are sitting in jail waiting on trial. Around two-thirds will remain behind bars and half of those have no prior criminal history.

These individuals are presumed innocent. The ability to pay bail is more dependent on someone’s income than on the severity of their supposed crime. Many individuals who are not a threat to the community nor a flight risk idle their days behind bars.

Simply because they can’t afford bail, they lose wages and often their jobs.

Most agree the bail bond system is in need of reform, but that won’t happen soon. In the meantime, pretrial work-release programs respect the due process rights, keeps communities safe and saves taxpayer money.

As a waitress at a Las Vegas hotel, Shannon Smart is familiar with the problems in a dysfunctional system. A single mom and holding down two jobs, Shannon’s sister, who suffers from mental illness, filed an assault charge against her. Shannon was arrested, detained and bail set at $100,000.

She couldn’t afford the money needed to secure release through a bail bondsman so her family pawned everything and asked friends to help out. By the time enough cash was raised, Shannon had been in jail almost a week.

It could have been worse. If her family had not covered her bail, she would have spent 90-days in jail. Three months away from her children and away from her job. When her went to court, the charges were dismissed.

Worse, she could have become another innocent person who pleaded guilty to get a specific release date.

Innocent Until Proven Guilty?

Americans are innocent until proven guilty. Citizens are guaranteed, in the Constitution, the right to a speedy trial. People who spend months in jail waiting for trial question whether the government is maintaining the guarantees. When people are accused of nonviolent crimes and locked up simply for not having the money for bail, permitting them to earn money and not put their job at risk, seems reasonable.

A recent study shows pretrial work-release programs. Data from over 400,000 defendants in Pennsylvania and Nevada suggests pretrial detention does not result in improved public safety. It does produce more unemployed defendants. More disturbing it creates more defendants who are convicted because of guilty please.

No one has figured out if pretrial lockup encourages guilty arrestees to come clean or forces the innocent to plead guilty in exchange for the chance to return to their family and jobs.

Pretrial Work-Release

Pretrial work-release programs permit eligible jailed defendants who cannot afford bail to return to work while waiting for their court date. Similar to already standard work-release programs, pretrial programs require defendants to return to jail at night when they’ve completed their day’s work.

Being able to work helps defendants make bail and be fully released to wait for trial without having lost wages or a job.

When defendants are able to earn enough to cover bail, costs drop even more. The jail’s population shrinks and jurisdictions can focus resources on holding individuals who pose the greatest risk to the community.

A collateral benefit are the savings by not having to provide welfare for those who have lost jobs.

The Takeaway

Giving the accused the chance to keep working, or find jobs, moves the justice system closer to desperately needed reform, protects the rights of the accused and saves taxpayer money.

Get arrested and you may be introduced to the often Draconian bail process. Someone going to jail for their first time may not know what goes into bail, how it gets paid and how a bondsman can help. Even for the well-experienced — or frequent flyers —  who have been locked up before there may be some things which remain unknown.

Bail 101

If this is your first time to post bail, here’s your Bail 101 Course. Simply put, bail is the dollar amount a judge required in payment to get out of jail and spend time at home while waiting for a court date. Bails purpose is to make the defendant accountable for keeping any court appearances and refrain someone from skipping town in a hopeless attempt to avoid justice.

If a person can’t afford bail, then the defendant has to wait in jail. There is a third option. Hire a bail bondsman to post bail. For a portion percentage of the bail amount, a licensed bondsman can often have a defendant out of jail and home before the ink on the arrest warrants dries. Some bail bondsmen even offer payment plans.

Bail bonds are a private lending service which may have restrictions in some areas and under some circumstances.

Paying Bail On Your Own Isn’t Always the Best Idea

Paying bail in cash is a long-term investment which could wreck a person’s financial standing. There is less financial risk in allowing a bondsman to pay the bail.

If a defendant uses their own money to cover a bond which is valued at $20,000, then that defendant is at risk of losing the entire amount should they desire to disappear and not keep a court appointment.

Bondsmen typically charge 10% of the bail amount, + administrative fees, for their services.

Going through a bail bondsman, in this scenario, only puts $2,000 of the defendant’s money at risk. In other words, if the defendant puts up his own money and vanishes, they’ve lost $20,000. With a bail bondsman in place, the arrestee is risking just $2,000.

Does Everyone Need Bail?

No. Not every arrestee needs bail. Depending on the circumstances an individual can get out of jail “based on their own recognizance.” Not everyone gets lucky. To qualify for this type release, the defendant must be a first-time offender, charged with a non-violent crime and seen as a low risk for skipping town.

Keeping A Court Appointment Isn’t Always Sufficient

Most persons believe that getting release on bail means all they have to do is keep their court date. There may be more.

A defendant may also have numerous court dates, be required to enrolls in a drug and alcohol program, or see their movement limited to the boundaries of a specific city or state. If the defendant does not honor their responsibilities, then the person who signed for the bail will risk losing their offered collateral to the bonding agency.

The Takeaway

If you or a family member have been arrested, know there are options when getting them out of jail. Contact 24/7 Bail Bonds to have your questions answered and have the options explained.