Here's a great article summarizing the current bail reform movement, titled, "The Fight to Fix America's Broken Bail System." I have to say there's a bit of vindication in hearing people call it "broken." It wasn't that long ago that I had to listen to goofballs in my own county saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Wogga muk gubba pum wup!
In the article, ABC says it just wants to preserve money bail in felony cases, saying, "The key core of our business is high risk felony cases. That's where judges should use us."
The author of the article says that the statement is "belied" by the bail industry's actions, and I agree. After all, the bail insurance companies are fighting like crazy to keep money bail in all cases, not just felonies. The federal lawsuit in Harris County only deals with misdemeanors, and the insurance companies have spent more of the bail agents' money on that case than in any to date.
So why make such a blatantly false statement? I have no answer except that the industry has been making any and all statements and arguments lately just to see what sticks. They say bail should be left to the legislatures, and then they bring their own legal claims to court (by the way, the industry has been using the courts to get its way for decades; it just doesn't like it when things go the opposite direction). They say the constitutional amendment in New Mexico is some great compromise between the industry and the state, and then they sue the state. They say there are no people in jail due to lack of money, then they say that it's time they admit that there are. In a federal trial court they say people are in jail because they want to be in jail, and then later in the same case they say those people are too dangerous to release. Now they say they only want money bail for felonies, but they fight like crazy to keep it in all cases. Makes your head spin.
This is a sign of an industry that either doesn't understand what it wants, or that's simply desperate to find the one argument that miraculously lets everything just stay the same -- preferably with them making gobs of money without doing anything. Then again, I've said before that ABC doesn't even know what the term "bail" means, so the whole thing might just be incompetence.
Really, the bail insurance "strategy" is just a confused mess, with ABC and PBUS flailing with schizophrenic arguments, groundless lawsuits, worthless PR campaigns, and bogus Facebook posts. Meanwhile, justice officials are quickly recognizing that the bail industry is simply in the way.
No wonder California has decided to look into whether there's some basic flaws in the bail insurance model with an eye toward regulation. Oh wait, that's a different blog!
