New Hanover County Sheriff car

New Hanover County needs both pretrial release and bail bonding, said Larry Powell, co-owner of All American Bail Bonding and Tarheel Monitoring, the county’s contractor for electronic monitoring.

“We can do a lot more if we can work together,” Powell said. “It takes both of us to run a successful pretrial release program.”

The county pretrial release program doesn’t have arrest powers, so when defendants don’t show for court, the program issues a warrant. But those warrants aren’t always law enforcement’s priority. Bail bonding companies have arrest powers.

Pretrial release also can’t tie a defendant’s family to a bond, which helps bail companies find no-shows.

“Without their help to locate these people, it’d be almost impossible,” Powell said.

But not everyone can afford bond and some inmates are arrested because they haven’t paid fines or child support.

Pretrial could be a good fit for those inmates and others who need counseling, job placement and other services.

Chad Taylor of Off The Hook Bail Bonds said he doesn’t see pretrial and bail bonding working together.

“They mention things like that,” Taylor said. “But nothing’s looking like it’s going to go that way.”

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