Here is a typical statement by
commercial bail bondsmen when it comes to rational measures toward bail reform.
“Catastrophic.” Really? Four states have completely eliminated bondsmen, and I
don’t read about any catastrophes there. Washington DC does not use commercial
bail bondsmen, and its pretrial court appearance rates and public safety rates
are high.
Notice that bondsmen say that “they bring
important benefits for society,” but they give no specifics on what, exactly, those
benefits are. Perhaps the answer lies in the first statement: “We strive for
personal profit.”
So there you go. We all benefit
from bondsmen striving to make more money. I’m sure if, given the time, there
might be some macro-economic rationale equating personal profit with some
yet-to-be defined societal benefits, but maybe not. Maybe, instead, we have
been right as a nation that for 100 years has called for removing profit from
bail. Since America has allowed persons to profit off of the misfortunes of defendants, we have become a nation with a pretrial detention rate that is three times the world average.
WNYC News
Bondsmen Pan Bail Overhaul Plan
Wednesday, February 06, 2013
By Ilya Marritz
A
proposal by New York's top judge to make big changes to the bail bonds system
for criminal defendants is getting bad reviews from the bail industry.
Chief
Judge Jonathan Lippman said in his annual State of the Judiciary speech Tuesday
that judges should order supervised monitoring for nonviolent offenders, when
possible. And when bail is required, Lippman wants not-for-profits to replace
for profit lenders.
George
Zouvelos, president of the New York Professional Bail Bondsmen and Agents,
said his members will fight the proposals.
“We
strive for personal profit,” Zouvelos said. “The professional bail bondsman
brings important benefits for society. Changing the effective system of the
status quo would be not only a mistake but catastrophic.”
Zouvelos
said criminal defendants are often treated badly in the overburdened courts
system, but the bail bonds industry is not the problem.
He also
denied Lippman’s claim that the bail bonds industry fails to meet the needs of
low-income New Yorkers who are unable to meet even low bail requirements.
“I do
$1,000 bonds and $750 bonds by the ton,” Zouvelos said.
There
are thought to be about 70 active bail bondsmen in the state.
