Pretrial Services Agencies Paranoia

Here's the latest example of the public taxpayer funded "free bail bond stores" trying to stay unexposed. They just refused to let The American Bail Coalition's Executive Director attend their National Association Of Pretrial Services Agencies (NAPSA) upcoming convention.

It was at one such convention that I did attend where I heard one of their leaders announce to their largest gathering: "We must be free of these vampire bail bondsmen."

What they obviously do not want a private sector bail bond person hearing is details of  their continued plan for bail's demise - fully in keeping with their Operating Standard Number Five: "There should be no compensated surety".

The one thing they fear the most? The light being shined upon them.

Ironic isn't it? "Fund us with your tax dollars, but don't look at us."

Your thoughts?

Jerryism #256

Hell hath no fury like NAPSA scorned.

Bail Bond Lobby Wants Safer Streets

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?"

Bail Bonds and Pretrial Release: When are the Facts not the Facts

The Pretrial Service Agency people have finally, despite their cover-ups and dismal performance, found an ally in the ultra-liberal Obama Justice Department.

For twenty-two years the Federal Bureau of Justice Statistics (a division within the U.S. Justice Department) has published several bail indsutry research reports comparing the performance of unsecured pretrial release (PTS) to secured release (commercial bail bonding). Every single time secured release dramatically outperformed unsecured release.

The private sector bail bond industry has used this information to show how Pretrial Service Agencies (aka local "free bail" shops) is a public safety danger and a terrible waste of taxpayer money. And the campaign is being successful. So successful, in fact, that it has driven the Pretrial Service Agency folks to take drastic measures by whining to Obama’s Justice Department that BJS information is hurting them and should therefore be retracted.

Consider this statement from the Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, State Court Processing Statistics, 1990-2004; “Compared to release on recognizance, defendants on financial release were more likely to make all scheduled court appearances.”

Compare that to this remark from a Data Advisory that was just issued from Bureau of Justice Statistics: “Evaluative statements about the effectiveness of a particular program in preventing pretrial misconduct may be misleading.”

What happened? Can anyone honestly imagine that pressure from above was not put upon the Bureau of Justics Statistics to issue this “Data Advisory” whereby they are made to contradict their own findings?

If we are surprised, we shouldn’t be. The socialist philosophy of Pretrial Service Agencies that the individual is not responsible for his behavior because society has failed him fits hand-in-glove with the “social justice” mantra of the current administration.

Pretrial Service Agencies will not give its own statistics or reports showing its dismal failure to appearance rate performance, and it cannot stand the truth as revealed in the Bureau of Justice Statistics studies. So it is forced to resort to deceitfulness.

Fortunately for them, they have a cover-up ally in the current administration. But that won’t last – elections come around on a regular basis.  Stay tuned for more on this extremely important topic.

Your thoughts on the subject?

Jerryism # 162

“What we need is less government in business and more business in government.”