If you read the article Gerie Crawford: Bail bond lobby wants to stick it to taxpayers (Gainsville Sun.com) authored by a self-styled “concerned citizen of Alachua County” arguing against HB 445 and SB 782 you might have been struck, as I was, with how this “concerned citizen” could be so extensively knowledgeable on the subject.
Let me say up front that I am a member of America’s private sector commercial bail bonding industry. And you, Gerie, are doing the old shuck and jive. You are cleverly pointing reader’s attention away from the fact that pretrial release is about one thing and one thing only: getting the accused back to court.
HB 445 and SB 782, concern themselves with addressing the problem of persons released through Florida’s taxpayer funded “free bail store” not making their court date. That and the fact that these fugitives are highly recidivistic. These two factors combine to establish that Florida taxpayers are unknowingly funding county agencies that create crime in their communities. How about responsible use of taxpayer monies, safer neighborhoods and more responsible behavior of persons charged with crimes. That’s all the legislation is about.
The simple fact is that when a defendant is released from pretrial custody on a bail bond the company that wrote the bond will get the defendant to court or pay the bond amount, but with the free bail stores a high percentage of defendants don’t come back and nobody pays. I am not a career criminal, but if I were I would move to Florida because I would know that when I get in trouble I will get a free bail bond, I won’t go to court and nobody will come after me and nobody will have to pay anything. How sweet it is.
The new legislation is about public safety.
Do not fall for the slick side step. Tell your legislator to pass the new Pretrial Release Bill.
I welcome your thoughts or comments on this subject.
Jerryism #78
Who was that masked "concerned citizen?"
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
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About Me
- Behind the Paper with Jerry Watson
- Jerry Watson serves as Chief Legal Officer to AIA, Senior Vice-President and Legal Counsel, Bail, at IFIC. He is the immediate past Chairman of the Private Enterprise Board of Directors of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) – America’s largest bi-partisan state legislator member organization on whose board he has represented the commercial bail industry for the past 15 years. He has also served as General Counsel of the American Bail Coalition since its founding and is a member of the Bail Advisory Council of the Surety and Fidelity Association of America (SFAA). His undergraduate and law degrees are from Baylor University and he is a graduate of the National College of Criminal Defense Attorneys and Public Defenders. He has testified as an expert on bail in various state and federal cases, among them being the country’s largest bail related damage suits. In Jerry’s 42 years in the bail industry, always as an attorney, he has represented local retail agents, general agencies, insurance companies and insurance companies’ trade associations before state and federal courts and regulatory agencies.
While Gerie Crawford spends time in Tallahassee (on the tax-payer's dime, I'm sure) lobbying the legislature against the two pre-trial bills, her pretrial release agency is soaking the local tax payer at a rate of more than $2,500.00 per "supervised" defendant (her own stats) with a failure (she calls it 'unsuccessful') rate of more than 20% of her clients. All justified because every one of these individuals would supposedly have spent years in jail at $70.00 per day per person, in spite of the fact that the vast majority of people that go to first appearance here are RORed.
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