Author: Michael Whitlock

I was very nearly shanked with a plastic fork this morning as typically harmless ASC team member, Earon Jamison cut the line for the tater tot casserole and other assorted goodies for the Good Friday office pitch-in.  Fortunately for me, I’m battle tested and on high alert, particularly in this legislative season when just about anyone will launch an unwarranted and overreaching attack on the profession I love and respect. I am just one of hundreds of bail agents and my peers at the surety level, working tirelessly to protect and defend the continued use of bail bonds as an instrumental tool to guarantee criminal offenders appear for trial.  The American Bail Coalition (ABC) under the direction of current Chair, ASC CEO Bill Carmichael and Executive Director Jeff Clayton, have…

  Austin, TX - The Committee on Criminal Justice held a hearing at the Texas State Capitol, on Tuesday, April 4.  The hearing room was packed with bondsmen from around the state.  They traveled to Austin to register their opposition to Senate Bill 1338.  The measures underlying purpose is to put Texas bondsmen out of business.  The tension in the room was palpable. On behalf of ABC, I was among several representatives of the bail bond industry who registered to testify in opposition to SB 1338.  Also providing testimony were expert bail attorneys Ken Good and Randy Adler and Houston based bondsmen, John Burns and Rodney Vannerson.   Sen. John Whitmire (D-15) is the Chair of the Criminal Justice Committee and the author of SB 1338. In his introduction of…

I've been traveling in Texas this week with my youngest daughter Samantha.  The primary purpose of our trip was to tour the campus of Texas State University in San Marcos.  Sam wants to be a forensic anthropologist and TSU is one of the few universities in the country that operates a "body farm".   San Marcos is situated  between and San Antonio and Austin which is where I am staying on this Saturday morning.  Yesterday afternoon Sam and I, together with my sister Cheryl, who lives in Austin, took a drive over to Fredericksburg, Texas to check out the Chuck Wagon cook off where bondsmen Mike Byrd and his wife Debbie where participating.  The food was excellent the old chuck wagons were really amazing. Think Lonesome Dove or John Wayne's,…

I've been traveling in Texas this week with my youngest daughter Samantha.  The primary purpose of our trip was to tour the campus of Texas State University in San Marcos.  Sam wants to be a forensic anthropologist and TSU is one of the few universities in the country that operates a "body farm".   San Marcos is situated  between and San Antonio and Austin which is where I am staying on this Saturday morning.  Yesterday afternoon Sam and I, together with my sister Cheryl, who lives in Austin, took a drive over to Fredericksburg, Texas to check out the Chuck Wagon cook off where bondsmen Mike Byrd and his wife Debbie where participating.  The food was excellent the old chuck wagons were really amazing. Think Lonesome Dove or John Wayne's,…

As of Friday, Rolando Arriso is back in custody.  Arriso failed to appear in a New Jersey court in 2016.  His $100,000 bail bond was forfeited by the court, as a matter of course.  Once the bail agent determined the FTA would not be easily resolved, the case was assigned to a recovery team and the search for the fugitive was underway. Arriso proved to be elusive.  Once it was learned he fled to Florida, the recovery team spent hundreds of man hours and thousands of dollars in expenses in their efforts to apprehend Arriso.  After receiving a tip, Arisso was located and apprehended in a Tampa area Walmart parking lot where he was pulled out from under a vehicle.  It was reported he was wielding a tire iron and…

If the filing of a lawsuit in a Houston Federal Court in 2016 was not a sufficient wake-up call to Texas bail agents then perhaps the filing of legislation aimed to put them out of business might do the trick. I awoke at 4AM this past Wednesday morning to a flight to Austin.  I wanted to be on time for PBT’s first meeting of the year.  After a year off, the Texas Legislature was in session and criminal justice reform had been placed on the legislative menu in the form of multiple bills.  To my surprise this critical meeting was poorly attended with only the usual suspects taking time away from their businesses to show.  The usual suspects being most of the PBT Board of Directors, the association’s lobbyists and…

The break from last year's battles in Connecticut, New Mexico and Utah was too short for my taste.  No sooner than champagne glasses were clinked welcoming in the New Year did we see the implementation of New Jersey's statewide pretrial release program go into full effect, turning The Garden State on its ear. Several counties in that state have filed suit to have the new law overturned on the bases of being an unfunded mandate that is costing the taxpayers millions of dollars. The Council of Local Mandates is set to rule on this suit later this month.  In the meantime, it's Christmas in January for many a criminal offender in that state who are being released pending trial with no supervision. I just returned from a trip to Sacramento…

On the morning of November 9, 2016, bail agents across the nation woke up with reason to be optimistic after learning Donald Trump was elected President of the United States.  After eight years of seeing our noble profession being persecuted by the current president we have some reason to hope in the coming days, months and years there will be a return to law and order, holding people accountable for their actions and respect for victim’s rights. The election set a positive tone for the first American Bail Coalition Affiliate Agent Conference in Las Vegas.  The one day conference preceded only by an evening reception, was held at Mandalay Bay and was short on fluff and long on substance.  Those attendees who were looking to be immersed in specific details…

It was a seven-day travel week during which I attended annual bail agent conferences in California and Texas.  The serenity of the South Lake Tahoe meeting site belies what lays ahead for the bail industry in The Golden State’s upcoming legislative year. The adverse impact of AB 109 and Prop. 47 have not slowed the insatiable appetite to make an easier path for criminal offenders.  Prop. 57 will be considered by California voters November 8.  This ballot measure, if passed, will pave the way to releasing as many as 30,000 convicted felons from state prisons.  Additionally, state legislators have made it clear, reforming California’s bail system will be a priority in 2017. Coming off a fallow season in 2016 the Texas state legislature will resume their work in January.  The…

Bill Carmichael addresses ISBAA members.  Seated left is Bob Dawson and Lee Sexton. The Indiana Surety Bail Agents Association held their annual meeting yesterday in Indianapolis.  ASC President & CEO Bill Carmichael broke down the recent Indiana Supreme Court addition of Indiana Criminal Rule 26.   Criminal Rule 26 suggests a recommendation to judges they release defendants on their own recognizance if they are not deemed to be a risk to public safety or a risk of flight.  This is the same discretion Indiana judges have always possessed.  Criminal Rule 26 also requires the court to obtain a signed guarantee from defendants who deposit cash equal to less than the full amount of bail.   Perhaps this is more symbolic than anything because it’s hard to collect from a fugitive.  Click here…