Okay, now I understand the
ABC strategy. I knew the bail insurance companies were on their heels – there’s
just too much stuff happening all over the country for them to keep up. For a
while I figured they’d just spend another million and hire 3 or 4 more
lobbyists. But I see now that they expect you bail agents to do their heavy
lifting.
ABC is holding their first
ever affiliate conference, and it’s clear from the agenda that they’re sticking
to their whole “fight everything” doctrine. “Yes,” ABC says, “the whole country
is wrong, and it’s just that the right message isn’t being delivered. The sheriffs
are wrong. The judges are wrong. The prosecutors and defense attorneys are
wrong. The municipal, county, and state governments are wrong. The federal
courts are wrong, too. So it’s just a matter of changing everyone’s mind. And we
can do that by convincing everyone that they’re wrong!” Great strategy, huh? I
mean, they’re even going to “debunk” certain fundamental premises, like the
fact that we have a problem with bail to begin with. Folks, ABC already tried
that strategy 10 years ago when we first got started. It didn’t work. Man, it really didn’t work.
But then I see that ABC
expects all you bail agents to sign up for a panel and write up data and
anecdotes so that you can help with the fight. ABC doesn’t even know what to say
anymore, and so they need you to say it. Oh, they’ll give the standard
arguments they’ve been peddling around the country, but remember what I said
last week – those arguments aren’t working.
This is your chance to ask
these ABC folks a few questions. What are they doing besides fighting everyone
to ensure the industry continues to exist? Do they have any kind of strategy if
money goes away? What happened in Santa Clara when both the current and past
ABC head couldn’t even stop a county from changing? What happened in New
Mexico, New Jersey, Arizona, Alaska, Utah, and Missouri? What are they doing in
Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Texas, Kansas, California,
and Massachusetts? What is ABC doing about the MacArthur Initiative? What about
the Three Days Count Initiative or the Smart Pretrial Initiative? What are they
doing about the Evidence-Based Decision Making Initiative? They’ll talk to you
about the Equal Justice Under Law lawsuits (they’re fighting them, as usual),
but will they mention the other four or five national organizations planning
similar national litigation strategies? Do they have a plan for the Chief
Justices in America, who have mostly decided to move away from a secured money
bail system? What about DOJ? Do they even have any clue as to how to “fight”
the DOJ?
And just today, Harvard Law
School released, “Moving Beyond Money: A Primer on Bail Reform.” Did ABC even
know about that, or what any other big-time law schools or universities are doing?
My bet is that ABC doesn’t
even know about a quarter of these things. And I have twenty more that I can
list. Instead, ABC’s specialty appears to be going on conservative talk radio
stations of 1,000 watts or less. That’s why they need you to provide “anecdotes”
so they can create a “bail data” document. While you’re there, you might ask them what’s
wrong with the last sentence I just wrote.
Mostly, though, I think ABC
just wants a chance to try to justify itself. But if it doesn’t have a plan for
how you fit into the new world of pretrial release and detention – a world that
likely doesn’t involve those really high bail amounts – then they’re just
killing time until your businesses all die off.
Bail agents, the bail
insurance company strategy is to get you to do their fighting for them. It’s the only way they can keep up with bail
reform and not have to pay for more lobbyists with money from their own
pockets. But you should seriously consider whether the strategy of fighting
everything all the time is the right strategy for you. After all, it hasn’t
worked so far.
