Bail Fact # 733

In 1898, the first commercial bail bonding company opened for business. By 1920, America had begun to realize that it had made a mistake by allowing that to happen. In 1922, Roscoe Pound (Dean of the Harvard Law School) and Felix Frankfurter (future Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court) offered the following simple solution to the dilemma. They wrote, "if we eliminate the opportunity [for the for-profit bail bonding] business, those who are now engaged in it will seek a living elsewhere."

At least it sounds simple. I wonder, did they have any bail insurance company lobbyists back then?