This may seem like a gimme, but wouldn't you think that if a bunch of billionaire insurance companies wanted a media guy, they'd hire someone with experience in big-time media work or at least a graduate from a top American journalism school? Yes, you'd think.
But instead, they hire an ex-bondsman from New Jersey, whose expertise is a couple of websites that post stories under the genre of "Dangerous Bank Robber Free to Go on a Handshake!"
Mainstream media has already figured out the major flaw in the thinking behind these stories: in the previous world, bail agents would be quite happy releasing dangerous people so long as they pay a bit of money. As I've written about a million times before, money won't keep you safe.
So why him? I mean the posts won't work at all in New Jersey. In fact, the industry is gone there and if NJ cares about dangerous defendants, they have the ability to lock them up without money. And they probably won't work in New Mexico -- like I said, ABC screwed up in not knowing about the fact that NM was a "court rules" state. And it looks like they won't work very well anywhere else; everyone who studies bail quickly realizes the flaw in the bail industry's attempt to spin things concerning money toward public safety when money has nothing to do with public safety.
The answer is that this guy and his posts are designed to keep the rest of you bail agents from jumping ship. His entire shtick is "Bail Reform is Failing," and "Hey Look, We're Winning!" That's the stuff ABC has been trying to sell you now for 10 years through three or four different lobbyists. Think about it. Do you feel like you're winning this thing? As long as you think you are, you'll just keep sending in all that money.
I've been telling people for 10 years that bail reform is inevitable. That means there's no turning back. There's no "losing momentum," as ABC says. The only question now is how it will shake out when it comes to moneyless detention. I've told bail agents for years how they could be a part of the future of American pretrial release and detention, but they haven't listened.
ABC says they hired the guy "to act as a liaison between ABC and bail agents" and to "improve efforts when it comes to media and social media."
By hiring this particular guy, though, ABC is showing no real attempt to influence legitimate media. So the main reason must be the liaison part. But don't be fooled; this hire is mostly designed to keep you bail agents in the dark. I assume you'll start seeing the same sorts of posts in every state, and if that's all you read you'll be tempted to hang in there and keep sending your money to the insurance companies instead of forcing them to change their failing strategy, which has no basis in reality.
In fact, if you keep clinging to ABC and the insurance companies that are behind it, then I predict that on that day that the very last bail bondsman shuts his doors, you'll still read a Facebook post by usbailreformnews, sponsored by ABC, that says, "Bail Reform Failed! Hey Look, We Won!"
