I just read the bail insurance companies' first response to the ACLU/Color of Change report that shines a big light on those companies. The response is schizophrenic, as usual, declaring that bail insurance companies are white knights by letting everyone out of jail while, at the same time, bemoaning the fact that bail reform is letting everyone out of jail. I mean, which is it, dude? Do you even believe in bail? Are they defendants or criminals? Do you even know what I'm talking about?
This is just further proof that the insurance industry doesn't understand criminal justice, bail, or constitutional law.
But this particular comment in the response caught my eye: "I actually have to get back to my real job, which isn't funded by taxpayers, but rather by customers who pay us money for providing an important service to the community. Yes, that is called commerce. It occurs when someone creates value through a service or product that people are willing to pay for."
Man, you'd think this guy was selling sandwiches. Commerce? Do you think bail is like other forms of commerce, where manufacturers create a product that people actually want to buy, and with market forces of supply and demand determining the viability of the product? I don't think so, which is why the bail insurance companies are hell bent on forcing jurisdictions to keep money bail so that they can force the demand.
If bail was like commerce, it would be more like a guy selling umbrellas on the street. If it never rained, he'd go out of the business of selling umbrellas and find something different to sell. But if that guy acted like the bail insurance companies, he'd go to state legislatures and get them to make it a law to force people to buy umbrellas even if it never rained. Two on Tuesdays. That's hardly creating a product or service people are willing to pay for. today, all over America, people are voluntarily becoming unwilling to use the bail insurance product, but the bail insurance companies want to force it on them anyway. That's the opposite of commerce.
So his job isn't what I'd call a real job, unless forcing other people (including bail agents) to keep you fat and happy is your idea of real, or a job. You realize, don't you, that in that ACLU/Color of Change report the insurance companies were bragging that they never paid out on any claims? What kind of a service are you providing when you force everyone else to provide the service for you?
Okay, so bail insurance companies don't understand bail, they don't understand the constitution, and they don't understand basic fundamentals of a market economy. And you bail agents are following their lead for what reason again?
