I’ve spent a good many words explaining
how the bail insurance lobbyists mislead jurisdictions, and how those
misrepresentations hurt bail agents across America. Turns out I think they’re misleading
the very companies who pay them, too.
I started figuring this out a
few months ago when an insurance lobbyist told a bunch of people in New Mexico
that Jefferson County, Colorado (where I live), was being touted as some sort
of pretrial success story. Then the lobbyist showed them some numbers trying to
convince them that the way judges are setting bail in Jefferson County today
has led to some bad outcomes. As often happens in other places when these lobbyists
speak, the people in New Mexico asked me to explain it all, and so I told them
the truth. The truth is that nobody is calling Jefferson County, Colorado, a
pretrial success story. And if there are any bad outcomes today, it’s because
of the lack of success when it comes to how Jefferson County continues to use
money at bail.
I should know, because I’m
one of the three people who helped design the so-called Jefferson County Bail
Project, which was basically the name we gave to a big project designed simply
to try to do bail differently. But to understand everything, you need to know
that the bail project was really made up of two parts. The first part – a
fourteen week experiment to show that if judges set less secured money bonds
the sky wouldn’t fall – was a success. The sky didn’t fall, proving, at least
partially and during the fourteen weeks, that we didn’t need as much money as
we thought we needed to do release and detention. In fact, we were able to
release more people and keep the same court appearance rates and public safety
rates by using less secured money bonds. There were other successes associated
with the initial attempt to do things differently, such as better bail
education, more purposeful release and detention decisions, etc., but the 14
week experiment was the main thing.
The second part, though – the
part where Jefferson County was supposed to actually implement the things they
learned from the 14 week experiment – was a total failure when it came to
deciding how to use money. In fact, I actually published a document that said
the county failed to implement what
it had learned. And yes, I actually used the word “failure,” which should have made
it pretty clear.
Now don’t get me wrong, there
were some things Jefferson County did permanently that were and still are
successes; for example, it has defense attorneys at first advisements now, and it
got rid of their bail schedule. But overall, when it came to actually
implementing a process that would move away from using cash or surety bonds,
Jefferson County simply didn’t do it. So when the bail lobbyist went to New
Mexico with data showing that outcomes are somehow bad now, years later, my
response to the people in New Mexico was, “Of course they’re bad now, because
nobody ever implemented any of the money improvements that we tested. After the
experiment, judges went right back to using cash and surety bonds just like
before.”
And then, just about a week
or so ago, a bail insurance company – not the lobbyist hired by the company,
but the company itself – said the same thing. It said, “Jefferson County is
being touted as a pretrial success story.” And I really started wondering, “Who
in the world is doing all this touting?” It certainly isn’t me. It isn’t the
two other people who helped design the project. And I’m pretty sure it isn’t anyone
else in Jefferson County. I mean, really, there is absolutely nobody in America
saying Jefferson County is some sort of success story when it comes to pretrial
release and detention.
But then it dawned on me. The
main bail insurance lobbyist is from Colorado, and when he interviewed for his
new job, he must have told the insurance companies that the reason the three of
us who designed the bail project are all doing national pretrial work is
because people think the bail project was great. He must have said, “Hey, people are touting Jefferson County, but I’m
from Colorado and I can find out the real story and prove that the bail
project shouldn't be touted at all.” The problem is that he apparently never even read
our published documents. If he had, he would have known that I, myself, said
that it failed.
So here’s this lobbyist
telling the companies that pay his salary that people are “touting” the Jefferson
County bail project as some success – when they aren’t – just so he can justify
foraging through some jail stats to try to shoot it down. Man, talk about
messed up. I mean, when you realize that Jefferson County actually failed to implement,
then the very numbers the lobbyist uses to try to trash the project actually
hurt the industry. Don’t you see? I would expect the current numbers to be bad
today because judges in Jefferson County kept on using cash and surety bonds.
This is just one more example
of a bail insurance lobbyist saying whatever comes into his brain without even
gathering the facts. Once again, bail agents, these guys aren’t doing you any
favors.
