As I read the document and maneuvered through the
fact-less claims and statistics, it started to click in my head what the
problem was. The argument being made by JPI is completely faulty.
Bear with me while I explain why. First, their main premise is that all
forms of money bail are bad and ineffective. But what they really mean is
that “commercial bail” or secured release is bad. Why, because, if all
forms of money bail are bad, than they would be criticizing themselves.
What they fail to recognize is that pretrial release programs are “money
bail.” The difference is the money doesn’t come from defendant’s
families, but rather from taxpayers. Who pays for the salaries of the
people who work in the pretrial office? Taxpayers do. Who pays for the
office space and the office supplies? Who pays for the clipboards and
pencils that they conduct their evidenced based assessments with?
Taxpayers do. In fact, everything they do costs taxpayers money. So
to say that they shouldn’t be included in the “money bail” category is
extremely myopic and untrue.
That being said, the real discussion that needs to happen
in the criminal justice community is not around the money, because at the end
of the day the money is part of all forms of release. The discussion and
comparison needs to be around results and effectiveness. The real
conversation needs to be around “secured release” versus “unsecured release”
and which method is more effective in achieving its purpose (getting a
defendant to court) and which is better at maintaining the highest levels of
public safety. And I will have that debate all day long. And to be
honest, that discussion is not much of a debate, because secured release
outperforms unsecured release in every dimension possible…especially in the key
dimension of getting people to court, where secured release outperforms
unsecured release almost 2 to 1.
The pretrial community does not want to have that
discussion. Why? Because they can’t win. They can’t outperform
financially secured release and they don’t have the record to compete head to
head with us. So instead, they distract
and deflect the truth and force the conversation on to untrue things like how
evil and greedy bail bondsmen are and play into that negative image of the bail
industry (sound familiar?).
So let JPI produce its fancy marketing pieces and
denounce “money bail” as evil and unnecessary. Because, at the end of the
day, I know that their argument is not only weak, but devoid of any reliable
statistics that matter. Commercial bail is a profession that exists
because it is needed. It is not around because bail agents are good at lobbying state
and local governments. Commercial bail is a profession that exists because it
works...and it has to work if you think about it. On average, bail agents take
only 10% of the bail amount as premium. If the defendant doesn’t appear
in court and the bail agent doesn’t get them back, the bail agent is
responsible for 100% of the bond. So even if the bail agent gets 9 out of
10 defendants back (which is much better than pretrial programs get), he would
be breaking even and more likely than not losing money because of the cost of
doing business. The very nature of the math, forces the bail profession to be successful and to ensure that
defendants appear…because if we don’t, we go out of business pretty fast.
Let me end with this. AIA is comprised of three
companies, Allegheny Casualty Company, which has been around for almost 80
years, International Fidelity Insurance Company which has been around for over
107 years, and Associated Bond, who has been around for 80 years. We
underwrite more bail than any other surety in the country and all three of our
companies couldn’t be stronger and more successful. If anything these
three companies are a testament of the effectiveness of bail as a profession
and a safe and reliable form of release. So call it money bail or
anything you want, but in the real world the proof is in the pudding and
financially secured release through a commercial bail bond does work and it
does so better than every other method around….oh yeah and it doesn’t cost
taxpayers a thing.