Posted January 30, 2012 at 12:00 AM by Michael J. Whitlock, MCBA
Executive Vice President under Meeting Recaps -
Austin, TX - New PBT President Scott Walstad of Dallas elected to spend his first months at the helm of one of the nation’s
prominent bail agent associations getting their fiscal house in order. The first hour or so of the Board of Directors meeting in the year's first quarterly meeting was spent talking about expense reports and meeting costs. The objective, where can costs be reduced and processes streamlined to save costs.
The meeting, held at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Austin was not all about cost cutting. There was still work to be done on the legislative front even though Texas Legislature is in hibernation. Redistricting will bring a number of changes and new faces to the legislature in 2012-2013. This will require a lot of work by the PBT Legislative Committee to sort it all out. It takes a tremendous amount of time and effort to educate legislators on the benefits of commercial bail both to the criminal justice system and taxpayers.
The recent passing of Houston based agent Peter Perrault also highlight the need for changes in the bail bond board statute. A legacy rule should be added allowing, upon the death of a licensee, a bail bond agency to continue to operate through a surviving spouse, son or daughter until that person can become formerly licensed. Presently, in the event of the license holder's death the bail bond agency is immediately shut down. This is not productive for the surviving family members, the county or the clients currently out on bond. PBT pledged to address this issue in the next session of the legislature.
The Professional Bondsmen of Texas will hold their 2nd Quarterly Meeting in Houston April 26-28.
Posted January 21, 2012 at 12:00 AM by Michael J. Whitlock, MCBA
Executive Vice President under Legislation -
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, in his recent State of the State address, called for no bail for repeat violent offenders. Christie said, “We can only improve our quality of life by keeping the most violent criminals off the streets”.
This is not a new direction for New Jersey. Last November, Governor Christie signed into law
A 1491, which expanded the current list of criminal offenses carrying a bail restriction, to include crimes involving domestic violence. Anyone arrested for a charge of an aggravated nature like sexual assault, robbery, carjacking and now domestic violence must either post full cash, a bond secured by real estate or a fully insured bail bond. This class of offender cannot be released on their own recognizance or a ten percent cash bond.
The peoples’ representatives of New Jersey and their governor clearly understand the public safety ramifications of releasing offenders charged with aggravated offenses on anything less than a fully secured bond. This is public policy safety minded residents can support.
Conversely, we have bail states like Indiana, Ohio and South Carolina and nonbail states in Oregon, Wisconsin, Illinois and Kentucky with judges and legislators willing to release with regularity offenders charged with aggravated offenses on a mere 10% cash deposit of the full bond amount. The logic being, a defendant will return to court if there is a chance of getting the deposit money back.
Requiring aggravated offenders to post a bail bond to guarantee their appearance in court is sound public policy. In what universe do individuals who perpetrate crimes on individuals deserve a 90% discount or a free bond? Citizens living in and around communities with these soft release policies have a right to be concerned for their safety. Who would have thought you would need to move from northern Indiana to New Jersey to feel safer. Every state should have bail restriction laws identical to The Garden State.
Posted January 12, 2012 at 12:00 AM by Michael J. Whitlock, MCBA
Executive Vice President under Deposit Bail, Legislation, and Meeting Recaps -
While in the Mile High City last week, I met with some of our bail agents, attended a meeting of the Committee on Criminal and Juvenile Justice (CCJJ) to hear a presentation on bail bonds and made a guest appearance on "In the Lobby" on WKRP Radio to discuss the bail bond industry.
The Colorado Bail Industry has been hit pretty hard lately. Not only because of the poor economy, but also because some courts have stopped setting surety bonds in lieu of small cash bnods with no option of posting a bail bond.
You may recall my reporting on SB11-186 (Alternative Bond) last year. This bill would have created a percentage cash bond managed by the local public Pretrial Release Agency. After a lengthy legislative battle SB11-186 failed to pass. Look for a similar bill to be in the upcoming session.
The CCJJ was behind the effort to introduce the Alternative Bond and it was a representative of the CCJJ who was called to the carpet during a committee hearing for not inviting a representative of the bail industry to sit on their committee. The CCJJ took immediate steps to remedy this oversight by inviting current PBAC President and local bail agent Steve Mares to join their committee.
The CCJJ held a meeting January 6 in Lakewood, Colorado where Steve Mares and fellow bail agent, Jason Alexander, made a two-hour presentation on commercial bail bond procedures. I attended the meeting as a spectator; only committee members were allowed to comment.
Steve and Jason did an excellent job with their presentation. They took a number of questions from the other committee members. One in particular, is it true most defendants who FTA while out on bond are arrested by law enforcement? Steve did a great job dispelling this myth by explaining 1) bail agents will make every effort to reinstate a bond without surrendering a defendant if there was no intent on the defendant’s behalf to flee; and 2) many times when a bail agent is surrendering a defendant to the county jail the duty officer will not provide a body receipt opting instead to put themselves down as the arresting officer in order to receive credit for the arrest. With the officers taking credit for the arrests it creates a false impression that bail agents are not responsible for the recovery of their fugitives. Committee members seemed to grasp the explanation.
Before I made my trip I was invited by lobbyist Cork Kyle to be a guest on his daily radio show, "In the Lobby". I appeared on air last Wednesday and thoroughly enjoyed my first opportunity to do radio. While nervous at first, I quickly got into the discussion, as I'm quite comfortable when I’m talking bail. It was a friendly environment as Corky represents the Rocky Mountain Bail Agents Association and it was a good experience. (Listen to my radio interview).
All eyes will be on Colorado again this legislative session watching for another effort to pass Alternative Bond legislation. The Colorado bail industry will also be working with the legislature on the proposed Sunset revisions. The regulation of bail by the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies is up for renewal and there have been several recommendations made by The Bail Bond Advisory Committee established last year. I will keep you posted as the situation develops.
It’s a new year with new challenges. Together, as a cohesive unit, we continue to promote the effectiveness of commercial bail bonds as a critical component of the criminal justice system.
Click on the picture to listen to my radio interview.
Posted January 3, 2012 at 12:00 AM by Michael J. Whitlock, MCBA
Executive Vice President under Commercial Bail -
On the drive into work today it occurred to me last month marked my thirtieth year in bail. The ink was barely dry on my
diploma from Plano Senior High School in December 1981 when I took a job as a runner for Guaranty Bail Bonds in downtown Dallas. While I’m a second generation bondsman, my first job was not working for my father, Jack Whitlock (though I would eventually work for him for more than 20 years), but my older brother who actually got me a job as a runner. My brother got out of the business and while I didn’t know it at the time, bail became my career choice.
The life of a bond runner is far from glamorous. It’s a hard job, you’re effectively a gofer. Go post this bond, go wait for the defendant to be released, take an application, call the client with his court date, etc. I went through more than one set of tires on my ’78 Nova, running bonds to jails all over Dallas County. Only bondsmen and law enforcement can recognize the particular fragrance defendants can acquire after a night in jail. Aside from that, most clients were glad to see me, as I was their savior of the moment. Most were good people going through a bad experience.
I also recall working the graveyard shift, when downtown Dallas was asleep and eerily quiet. Parking was not a problem that time of night and if I paced myself, I could make every green light on Commerce Street as I returned from posting a bond at the county jail. Still the nights were endless and unforgiving.
I worked for three bonding companies before going to work for Texas Fire & Casualty as a bottom rung claims processor. It was at TF&C, and a year later at Allied Fidelity, I first started working with the likes of Don Floyd (GA), Marvin Byron (CA), Bud Goldberg (MN), Carl Guillory (LA) and Linda Braswell (FL), the current president of PBUS. Good people all.
I learned a tremendous amount during my first five years in bail which helped me through the subsequent twenty-five and today. It’s when I began working with bail agents in nearly every state in the country I really began seeing the big picture of what commercial bail means to the criminal justice system and the forces who work to eliminate our profession. The few years I spent in retail has helped me relate to the bail agents I’ve contracted through the years.
Bail has become my passion. Working in this profession has allowed me to provide for my family. I’ve been truly blessed to work with my father for more than twenty years and have partners like Bill Carmichael and P.J. Longstreth and work with a great staff of experienced good people. The bail agents I work with everyday are hard working decent people trying to make a difference and my wife Marcia and our kids who have been tolerant of my odd work hours and extended travel schedule. It’s been a good ride so far and I’m looking forward to many more years working in this noble profession. Happy New Year!
Posted December 7, 2011 at 12:00 AM by Michael J. Whitlock, MCBA
Executive Vice President under Deposit Bail -
When I think about 10% deposit bail and I think about it often, I keep thinking how it’s a Rubik’s cube of logic that proponents use to justify its use to guarantee a criminal defendant’s appearance in court. Deposit bail (posting 10% of the bond in cash with the court with the remaining 90% unsecured) is really nothing more than an air sandwich being fed to the general public. A vacuous guarantee provided by the criminal offender himself, providing zero sustenance to victims and taxpaying citizens or the criminal justice system. Penn State assistant Coach Jerry Sandusky recently released on a 100% unsecured bond, not even a partial cash deposit; that was an air sandwich with cheese.
In our effort to prove the Air Sandwich Theory we have initiated an effort to gather information from counties throughout Indiana who have, for years, used deposit bail to the exclusion of all other forms of release, including and in particular, commercial bail bonds. Our request for listings of failure to appear warrants and an accounting of cash bail deposits have met with some resistance.
Some counties have been cooperative in responding to our Freedom of Information Act requests (FOIA) while St. Joseph County (South Bend), a county who has exclusively used deposit bail for decades has been less than forthcoming with details. One would think a county utilizing one system of bail exclusively for forty years would have perfected their process over time. Apparently, that is not the case.
According to neighborhoodscout.com South Bend has a crime index of 4 making the home of Notre Dame University safer than just 4% of the cities in the US. Residents of South Bend have a 1 in 131 chance of being a victim of a violent crime and 1 in 15 chance of being a victim of a property crime. According to the 2004 FBI Crime Report, the overall crime index in South Bend at that time was worse than the national average in every category. It would appear little progress has been made in the years since.
I recently wrote to and spoke with the St. Joseph County Clerk. I was told they had no way of knowing, at any given time, how much money was being held in trust for cash bail deposits and her office could not provide and did not have a detailed listing of criminal defendants who currently had bail money on deposit. She went on to tell me they were using antiquated systems and the only way to know if a defendant had cash bail on deposit was to do a manual search using their public access computer.
One has to ask the question, if you don’t know how much money is supposed to be in the cash bail trust account how do you know if the account balance is accurate? Who is responsible for reconciling this account? Who is responsible for these funds?
The FOIA request I sent to the St. Joseph County Warrants & Fugitive Division requesting a list of outstanding warrants, was met with the same obfuscation. While other counties in Indiana provide a list of their outstanding warrants on line, St. Joseph County claims no such list exists, at least not one they want to provide their employers, the general public.
Undeterred, I was able to find a lengthy list of outstanding warrants for St. Joseph County at www.southbendareacrimestoppers.com. Not surprisingly there were a number of open warrants for failure to appear for court on charges ranging from battery, robbery and auto theft to weapons possession, forgery and habitual traffic offenses. Offenders, who at the discretion of the St. Joseph County judges or its sheriff were released from jail and back into society on a10% cash deposit, 90% free bond.
The residents of South Bend continue to be victimized by elected officials, appointed judges and law enforcement executives who have intentionally opted to use a minimum standard for guaranteeing a criminal defendant’s appearance in court. A fully secured bail bond remains the most effective option for ensuring a criminal defendant appears for court and justice and public safety is served, it’s no air sandwich.