The American Bail Coalition
put out its midyear report on all the “failing efforts to eliminate the
constitutional right to bail.” I suppose if they reported on all the “successful
efforts,” it’d be longer and harder to write. But that’s why I’m here. To correct
the record!
First of all, though, nobody’s
trying to eliminate the constitutional right to bail. The right to bail isn’t a
right to money, and the insurance companies know that. As the U.S. Supreme
Court said, it’s a right to release – a right to “freedom before conviction.” And
it just so happens that money gets in the way of release and freedom. If
anything, eliminating money greatly enlarges the right to bail. We’re not
eliminating the right to bail. We’re making it meaningful.
I’m not going to go point-by-point
through their whole report and show how these insurance lobbyists mislead all
the people they’re hoping to convince are on the right side. For example, if
you really liked money bail, and if ABC told you the whole story behind New
Mexico, you’d be pretty concerned. Or the federal money bail act – did you
really think something like that would pass in an election year by this
Congress? Goodness gracious, if they actually paid a lobbyist to work against
that bill, they’re dimmer than I thought.
Instead, I’m just going to
list all the states that are making progress reforming the bail process that
ABC didn’t even mention. Here they are:
Alaska, Oregon, Nevada,
California, Arizona, Wyoming (yes, I’ve talked to them), Colorado, Pennsylvania,
Virginia, Delaware, South Dakota (albeit minor stuff), Wisconsin, Kansas,
Nebraska, Texas (watch out for Texas), Missouri, Kentucky, Illinois (I know a
couple of big time bail reformers out there right now), Ohio, Indiana, North
Carolina, Maine, Massachusetts, Hawaii (just talked to them, too), West
Virginia, Minnesota, and Alabama (well, one county, but you also have to count
the lawsuits). Oh, and don’t forget Guam! Mighty Guam is leading the charge.
In fact, I only counted 15
states that aren’t doing any bail reform, and those are just the fifteen I personally
don’t know anything about. Ask PJI, or NIC, or a few other groups, and they’ll
probably add a few to my “bail reformer” list. Oh, yeah, and you probably have
to add a few more of the 15 to that list simply because they’re getting sued.
That sort of thing leads to bail reform, too.
My dad was a lobbyist, and my
brother is a lobbyist, so I know that lobbyists have to periodically make reports
showing a certain amount of success. I expect it. But the time is running out
for these particular bail insurance lobbyists to help their bail agents make
any kind of transition into the brave new world of pretrial supervision.
For over 100 years, the “foundation”
of American bail has been secured money bonds. But all of that is changing.
There are fundamental cracks in the foundation, all right, but they aren’t the
ones the insurance lobbyists want you to focus on.
