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A bill that would have added a $15 fee to each bail bond was held up in the Appropriations Committee yesterday and is now dead for the 2015 session of the California State Legislature. The California Department of Insurance was behind efforts to pass AB 1406 which, if passed, would have generated millions of dollars for the Bail Investigation and Prosecution Fund.  This fund would have underwritten the costs to investigate complaints against California Bail Agents. Commercial surety companies and bail agents doing business in California already pay millions of dollars annually to the State of California and the California Department of Insurance, in the way of premium taxes, licensing fees and appointment fees, so the addition of a $15 per bond fee seemed excessive. AB 1406 faced opposition from…

 I read in the paper earlier this week the average attention span of Americans is currently eight seconds, so let me keep this brief. Attended the ISBAA Spring Meeting in Indianapolis this past week.  Turnout was excellent.  Program was informative.  Deposit bail is still a problem.  Most Hoosier judges and prosecutors continue to value cash deposit over appearance, justice, victims’ rights and public safety.  Profit without performance. In the words of John Mellancamp, “there is no new news there”.  Indiana legislators decided to ignore the elephant in the room this past session.  The sale continues; 90 percent discounts for nearly all defendants seeking bail.  So much for the notion Republicans opposing government competing with private business and holding criminal offenders accountable for their actions. I taught an hour of continuing…

Bail agents are no different than those who work in other professions.  There are those who participate in the advancement, protection and preservation of their profession and then are those who go about their business.  Others volunteer their time and spend their financial resources to everyone’s benefit.  This is often referred to as riding coattails. In the bail industry we see apathy at the retail level and the surety level.  As I travel around the country to various state association meetings I see the same faces volunteering their time, contributing to PACs and sponsoring events which raise money for their state association.  These state associations then use the money to provide continuing education classes and pay lobbyists to advocate for bail related issues.  Well, these efforts taken on behalf of…

In the lobby of American Surety Company’s Indianapolis Home Office hangs a plaque recognizing the years of service of our team members in increments of five, ten, fifteen, twenty and twenty-five years and above.  Soon a name will be etched under the twenty-five year level, Gary W. Logue. Gary or G.W., as I often call him, began working at Underwriters Surety, Inc. in March, 1990, shortly after obtaining his degree from Purdue University, ironic because Gary’s an ardent fan of Indiana Basketball.  He fit in immediately. Gary was a God’s send for me personally because he joined our team at time when USI was in its fourth year of existence and we were extremely busy.  It wasn’t long before Gary and I were sharing after hour’s on-call shifts, a week at a stretch,…

I'm back on the road again with trips through Louisiana and Texas over the next two weeks. Business as usual.  There is also business as usual around the country as the landscape in the criminal justice system continues to evolve. I read an online article last week where deep pocket political powerhouses George Soros and Koch Industries have joined forces with the ACLU, Americans for Tax Reform, Freedom Works and others to form the Coalition for Public Safety. These groups have pulled together $5 million dollars of initial funding to get the program off the ground.  The gist of the program being to reform the criminal justice system by finding ways to reduce jail crowding and addressing overcriminalization and overincarceration. Of course, the criminal justice system is in need of reform.…

Las Vegas, NV - I've just returned from my annual February trip to Las Vegas to attend the PBUS Winter Conference.  I've been present for this annual meeting of bail agents nearly every winter since 1986.  This trip can be exhausting though I do enjoy seeing familiar people I have gotten to know while attending this event through the years. I have a special affinity for PBUS.  My father Jack was a founding member.  I have fond memories attending PBUS meetings with him in the late eighties when the conference was held at the Golden Nugget in downtown Las Vegas.  I was learning from the master. PBUS is a place where bail agents and surety representatives from around the country converge on Las Vegas for a few days to discuss issues…

El Paso, TX - There has been an ongoing battle between the Professional Bondsmen of El Paso County and Commissioner Vincent Perez and his proposal to combine the various pretrial release offices into one department.  The local bonding community believes Commissioner Perez intends to expand the use of PR bonds to the detriment of the community. I attended a meeting of the El Paso County Bail Bond Board last week.  Commissioner Perez was present at that meeting to report on his progress.  He assured board members and those bondsmen in attendance the intent of his proposal was not to put bondsman out of business, that PR bonds were a very small part of his initiative.  Personally, I was not convinced. Commissioner Perez spoke of his recent trip to San Antonio where…

My 2015 travel schedule began with a trip to Jackson, Mississippi earlier this week to attend the Mississippi Bail Agents Association Legislative Reception and the MBAA Winter General Assembly Meeting. The MBAA is one of the more successful state associations in the country, with an excellent track record at the state assembly and tremendous support from that state’s licensed bail agents.  Their meetings are expertly organized by MBAA President Patty Hodges and her Board of Directors. The Legislative Reception for state legislators is an annual event and provides a great opportunity to discuss industry concerns with legislators or just get to know the peoples representatives.  Every state association should follow the MBAA’s example. The membership meeting included two heavyweight speakers, Mississippi Lt. Governor Tate Reeves and Inspector Robert Kay from…

Whew!  Another year is nearly behind us.  Is it too much to ask that 2015 be an uneventful year?  This past year was anything but calm.  There were some good decisions and a few bad decisions rendered throughout the last twelve months that will impact the bail profession and public safety for years to come.  Here are but a few. The Supreme Courts in Ohio and Washington State ruled earlier this year their lower courts could no longer deny criminal defendants the right to secure their bail with a surety bond.  Courts in these two states were setting bail with a ten percent cash option (ninety percent unsecured) to the exclusion of bail bonds.  Criminal defendants in these two states now have the option on how they choose to meet…

Speaker of the House Brian Bosma raised the issue of K-12 education during his opening address last week for the upcoming session of the Indiana Legislature. School funding and consolidation are at issue.  Not surprisingly, there are only few people who realize increasing the using of bail bonds can have a direct impact on revenue deposited to the Common School Fund. For those that are not aware, when someone is arrested in Indiana for a non-capital offense they are entitled bail.  In order to obtain release from jail a defendant can meet the bail obligation by posting full cash, real estate or a bail bond.  There is a fourth option; a judge can permit a defendant to post just 10 percent of bail amount in cash with no security required…