The Wisest Use of Your Tax Dollars

There is an increasing push to establish taxpayer-funded pretrial services programs across the country and to eliminate financially secured bail.  Why?   Advocates of using more of your tax dollars to perform a function that the private industry is extremely effective at, cite various reasons.  One is jail overcrowding because people can’t afford financial release.  Another is that financial release discriminates against the poor.  Yet another is that financial release is not evidence-based or objective.  Another is that financial release doesn’t look at risk for flight or risk to public safety.  Another is that financial release elevates the economic status of the defendant over assessment of risk. 
 
In other words, is a system that has operated successfully and efficiently for centuries, ensuring that defendants appear for all required court appearances using no taxpayer dollars, no longer valid or needed?  Are taxpayer-funded pretrial services programs the panacea to all of the woes in the criminal justice system?
 
By their own definition, advocates for such programs state that: pretrial services programs are an alternative to incarceration and provide all criminal court defendants that are initially unable to post bail, the opportunity to be interviewed to determine eligibility for release from jail under a supervised program.   How is it determined that such defendants are unable to post bail?  There are many defendants who have been and are able to post bail for prior and current criminal arrests but instead are given free release by the taxpayers.  Many defendants have been released on taxpayer funds when they are not even declared indigent by the court.
 
They go on to say: Pretrial services release is mainly for defendants accused of minor crimes who can demonstrate that they live in the community and pose no threat of flight or danger to the community at large.
 
There are literally thousands of examples of defendants released on taxpayer funds to be “supervised” in the community and who are charged with serious and violent offenses, many with lengthy criminal histories, violation of probation and failures to appear for court.  The contention that only defendants charged with minor crimes are released on taxpayer funds is a ruse to get more funding for their programs.
 
Those who promote the elimination of financially secured bail continue to try and make the taxpayers believe that our pretrial justice system is broken because defendants must either pay bail or wait behind bars for their court date.  Proponents of taxpayer-funded programs claim they save the taxpayers millions of dollars by securing the release of defendants who otherwise would languish in jail without them.  Money is the sole reason that is causing the unnecessary incarceration of the defendant.  Money is stopping them from returning to their family and jobs.  Money is causing jail overcrowding across the country because defendants can’t afford their release.
 
So the alternative is to release individuals on taxpayer funds through pretrial services programs, comprised of employees that often have little or no experience in supervising defendants.  And yet they are tasked with ensuring defendants are complying with the conditions of bond and keeping citizens safe. 
 
In contrast, public safety is enhanced under financially secured bail as bail agents continually assess risk of the defendant to include regular check-ins, ongoing communication with the defendant and indemnitors, court reminders and monitoring to avoid a failure to appear.  Why?  Because bail agents are physically and financially responsible for defendants released on bail.  If that defendant fails to appear for court, the bail agent must repay the full amount of the bond to the court. 
 
When people are arrested, they have several options for release, with financial bail being one of them.  Taxpayer-funded pretrial services programs play an important role in the criminal justice system, which is interviewing defendants prior to their initial court appearance and compiling criminal history information for the judge to make an informed release decision.  Such programs were never designed to supervise the types of defendants or the number of defendants they are today.
 
The private commercial bail industry understands that many counties are still facing difficult financial times and that they are seeking ways to be as innovative as possible.  Likewise so is the commercial bail industry.  All of us must do more with less.  All the more reason to focus our resources and expertise in areas of the criminal justice system that save taxpayer dollars and protects public safety.
 
Taxpayer-funded pretrial services programs should focus on the non-violent, first-time offenders who pose little threat to community safety or those defendants who are truly indigent and have been arrested for a minor crime.  The commercial bail industry has years of experience in supervising the more violent offenders and those with lengthy criminal histories.  And, we use our own resources to do so.
 
As the commercial bail industry has said before and will continue to say . . . imagine the effect on public safety and offender accountability if both systems worked together to ensure the defendant appeared at all required court hearings, refrained from future criminal activity and refrained from violating any other condition of release?
 
The commercial bail industry is a willing partner but is the taxpayer-funded pretrial services system?  We welcome the opportunity to come to the table as friends instead of foes.

Pretrial Release: Florida House Bill 445 Passes Committee Unanimously

Florida House Bill 445, sponsored by Representative Chris Dorworth, passed the Public Safety & Domestic Security Policy Committee by unanimous vote on Tuesday, March 9, 2010! Chaired by Representative Kevin Ambler, the committee acknowledged the benefits of the bill, which would limit taxpayer-funded pretrial release to the indigent who are not charged with a violent offense. The bill also limits eligibility to anyone who has failed to appear in the past or has been convicted of a violent crime. The bill is a win-win for the taxpayers and the indigent, who often are the ones passed over by pretrial services programs while they release other defendants who are able to post a bond.

A handful of people spoke against the bill claiming the mentally ill or poor people would remain in jail. It is obvious they didn't read the bill as poor people are the ones the bill would help and the judge still has full judicial discretion to release anyone who doesn't qualify for release under the bill to be released on their own recognizance and ordered into mental health treatment, drug treatment or other special programs. GPS monitoring and drug testing can also be ordered and accessed by private providers in the community.

Commissioner Bill Proctor from Leon County, who created the county's pretrial release program, was one of the individuals against the bill. If he had done his homework, he would have realized the benefits of the bill to the indigent as well as the savings taxpayers would enjoy by not having to spend more tax dollars to find people who fail to appear for court when released by pretrial services. He claimed there were no statistics that show any difference in failure to appear rates for release on bond or pretrial services; he must not have read the two dozen national studies that have been conducted that show release on a bail bond has the lowest failure to appear rate than any other form of release!

Even the Tallahassee Democrat saw the light when they reported that Proctor, "protested Tuesday against a plan to forbid release of dangerous suspects and know bail jumpers without posting bail." What is relevant to this whole argument is the fact that public safety will be increased while the burden on taxpayers will be decreased.

The bill next goes before the Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations Committee the week of March 22, 2010. If you care about your safety and the wise use of your tax dollars, communicate with your Representatives and Senators and let them know you support this important bill!

Pretrial Release Bills

Florida Senator John Thrasher and Representative Chris Dorworth are sponsoring bills for the 2010 legislative session that would streamline the types of people that could be released under a taxpayer-funded pretrial services/release program. Of course, this has caused a massive panic of pretrial services/release programs across Florida fearing they may loose their taxpayer-funded jobs!

Other states across the country are sponsoring similar legislation and some have even been successful getting such legislation passed, which also has led to similar uproars from pretrial services/release programs. So upset are they that the private surety bail industry has finally begun to show they type of lies and rhetoric these programs tell legislators, funders and the public, that they have launched a massive public relations effort to discredit us - but it is beginning to backfire on them!

The benefits of the Florida pretrial detention and release bills limiting release into a taxpayer-funded pretrial services/release program are many and take into account the wise use of taxpayer dollars and public safety:

• The bills enhance public safety by targeting defendants who are charged with a misdemeanor offense or felony offense, which not dangerous in nature, for release
• Defendants who have failed to appear for a court appearence previously would not be eligible for release due to their lack of accountability for appearing in court for past crimes
• Defendants who are already on probation for a prior offense or have committed a new offense would also not be eligible for release
• The "public option" for release for dangerous criminals and those with lengthy criminal histories would be eliminated
• Defendants with prior convictions for violent offenses would not be eligible for release
• The bills would require that those defendants who can afford to pay for their release do so and would require programs to target truly indigent defendants
• The bills do not take away judicial discretion to release a defendant on non-monetary means if they do not qualify for a pretrial services/release program - the judge can still release a defendant on their own recognizance if appropriate
• The bills prohibit the collection of any fees for release or supervision

Pretrial services/release programs continually try to portray bail agents as greedy and who are only out to make a profit off the unfortunate! Bail agents do not determine who gets out of jail and who doesn't. The decision as to whether or not a defendant is released and under what mechanism lies directly with the court. Unacceptable risk is the sole reason a bail agent would not bond a defendant out of jail.

The fact that pretrial services/release programs are complaining that these bills PROHIBIT them from collecting fees shows that they really don't care about non-monetary release or how tax dollars are spent! Individuals that comprise the private surety bail industry are all taxpayers too and we demand that our money be spend wisely and effectively!

So should all of you. Public policy affects public safety!