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Happy New Year!  I confess, this last year, my 35th working in the bail industry, was a trial indeed.  Spending more than 75 nights away from home, it was my busiest travel season yet.  Regrettably, this time was not all spent on promoting our company, American Surety Company, but rather working with my peers in the industry to preserve a vital component of the criminal justice system that has been around for more than a century, surety bail bonds. The warriors of social justice have been working double time to replace judicial discretion on determination of bail with an algorithm based risk assessment tool that many state legislators, state supreme courts justices and state courts have been quick to support, perhaps too quick.  In the wake of their hasty decisions,…

All over the news lately is talk of the tens of thousands of rape-kits around the country that have never been processed.  An alarming number of these kits documenting a violent event in someone’s life, have been stockpiling for years, and in many cases, decades. My wife Marcia works for the Indiana Coalition to End Sexual Assault (ICESA).  Last night I attended, with Marcia and our oldest daughter Sarah, a premier of Mariska Hargitay’s (Law and Order SVU) documentary film “I Am Evidence.”  The film focuses on rape-kits and how many states have stockpiled them for years with only a few being sent for DNA testing.  In 2009, it was discovered the City of Detroit had more than 10,000 unprocessed rape-kits being stored in a dilapidated building, where the evidence…

Moving towards a Softer, More Gentle Criminal Justice System I’ve been parking in the same lot at the Indianapolis airport for several years now.  In the past year or so I began noticing people were parking in areas marked in yellow and at the end of rows where there were no marked spaces.  The first time I saw this I figured, that car will be surely be towed.  However, when I got back in town a few days later that same car was still there, untouched.  In fact, a bright orange traffic cone had been lovingly placed near the bumper by security, to protect the vehicle.  It wasn’t long before more and more people began parking in spots not meant for parking and more and more orange cones were being…

Crime victims, increased crime, a degraded criminal justice system and unsafe communities are never discussed by supporters of reform efforts that make it easier for criminal offenders.  All focus is on a manufactured number of individuals arrested on probable cause of committing a crime, who are perceived as being held in custody pre-trial simply because they cannot afford bail.  An assertion that has been debunked each time the argument has been put forth as fact. There have been many efforts through the years to ease the strain, stress and economic impact on those arrested for crimes.  In turn, attempting to move the burden from those individuals to those law-abiding taxpayers who have suffered from their actions.  In 2013 the Conference of Chief Justices and Conference of State Court Administrators agreed…

I was in Las Vegas this past Sunday to attend the annual conference of the California Bail Agents Association.  California bail agents were in attendance to receive an update on legislative efforts to eliminate commercial bail in that state and replace it with an unproven methodology known as a risk assessment tool. It was around 10:30 P.M. Sunday evening when word began circulating about gun fire on the strip.  It was assumed the shooting occurred at one of the city’s many bars, but it wasn’t long before the media began reporting a gunman was taking sniper shots at a crowd of more than 22,000 concert goers at an outdoor venue.  We now know 59 people were murdered that evening with more than 500 injured.  It has been reported to be…

Within the last sixty days, there have been three lawsuits filed challenging the constitutionality and veracity of recent changes to the bail systems in New Jersey and New Mexico.  Issues include, ankle bracelets in lieu of a bail bond, risk assessment tools and the overreach of a state supreme court. It is well known, at the beginning of the year, New Jersey moved to a statewide pretrial release program that utilizes the Arnold Foundation risk assessment tool, a tool that is promoted as an effective means to determine if an offender is a risk to public safety or risk of flight.  Bail bonds remain a legal release option in The Garden State though a judge must jump through several hoops before bail can be required or permitted.  Largely, offenders are…

I received a text last Friday from American Surety Company bail agent and longtime friend Harley Esparza about the cost of tolls.  Harley operates out of Corona, California.  He was sitting in “working mans” traffic while those with deeper pockets were paying the going rate of $20.85 to take the express lane home on a busy Friday afternoon.  Apparently, those who can afford it pay as much $90 in tolls during a daily commute.  That can amount to an annual toll tab of more than $12,000, too much for Harley, too much for most. On July 1, a new gas tax of 1.9 cents went into effect in California.  This may not seem like much but California’s gas prices are routinely a dollar higher than that of the rest of…

CA AB42 Fails to Pass, SB10 Still Alive What a night it was last evening.  Many of us were watching Game 1 of the NBA Finals on one device and the California General Assembly on another.  The Golden State Warriors won their battle against LeBron James and the Cavaliers while all of California won when AB42 failed to a pass out of the General Assembly. AB42’s doppelganger in the Senate is SB10.  Senator Hertzberg’s SB10 passed out of the Senate earlier this week with little opposition.  The senator’s partner in bail reform Assemblyman Bonta, was not as fortunate.  Despite his efforts, Bonta’s AB42 went down late last night in a 36-37 vote.  He lost by one vote. What a tremendous effort by the lobbying team and everyone and every organization…

Last week Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval returned AB136 unsigned, to the Speaker of The of the Nevada State Assembly.  Vetoed.  AB136 was the result of recommendations made by a Nevada Supreme Court Committee to Study Evidence-Based Pretrial Release.  The committee was chaired by Justice James W. Hardesty. Governor Sandoval wrote in his May 26, 2017 letter, “No conclusive evidence has been presented showing that the risk assessment methods proposed by AB136 are effective in determining when it may or may not be appropriate to release a criminal defendant without requiring bail.”  He went on to write, “It is not clear that the provisions of AB136 will enhance the ability of Nevada’s judges to make these determinations (bail) in a manner that balances the interests of justice and public safety.” Nevada was the second state…

It wasn’t an hour after SB-10 cleared the Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday on a 5-2 vote, I began getting phone calls from California bail agents.  Is this it, are we done?  Are we out of business?  No, we’re not done and we’re not out of business.  While California bail agents and surety companies operating in the Golden State do have a huge fight on our hands, we can prevail. Proponents of these two criminal welfare bills SB-10 and AB-42 are probably feeling good today, their side advanced the ball.  There are still many plays left before either of these two measures can cross the goal line and become law. There is an adage in legislative circles, it’s easier to kill a bill than to pass one.  Our aim and the…