Expect More of This, Bail Agents

Here is a link to a story talking about a big antitrust lawsuit against bail bond companies in California.

I guess I don't have to tell you that having something like this hanging over your head doesn't really bode well for any sort of referendum vote.

Note that one of the most damaging statements in the story came straight from the mouth of a bail insurance guy. We actually used other statements from that very same bail insurance company to fight a group called ALEC, which had to come out from under the shadows due to pressure. For whatever reason, ABC and its members sure do like to make damaging statements on the record.

Lots of stuff the bail insurance companies have done over the decades probably seemed like good things at the time, but it's all coming back on them now. Staying away from public safety, arguing there's no presumption of innocence, setting up barriers to keep from paying forfeited amounts, avoiding any decent self-regulation, fighting any attempt at reform, claiming that their subjective notions of risk trump anything remotely objective, and, now apparently, promoting price fixing.

You're only going to see more of this sort of thing. It's baked in.

Fifth Circuit Grants Motion to Dismiss Appeal in Harris County

Yesterday the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals granted the motion of recently elected Harris County judges to dismiss their appeal of the preliminary injunction won by bail reformers last summer. You can read about it here.

As you recall, that's the earth shattering injunction that -- theoretically -- could change bail practices across the nation simply because Harris County practices look identical to those in virtually all American counties. I've been teaching on the injunction since it came out, and it's reasoning is nearly perfect.

This all means massive changes to misdemeanor bail in Harris County, but the same arguments apply to felonies, and it's just a matter of time before people understand that.

One outgoing judge quoted in the article said, "I remain convinced that fighting against bail reform was a mistake." Not to belabor the point, but isn't this pretty much what I've been writing on this blog for the past 5 years?

Indeed, this particular fight was apparently a nine million dollar mistake.

The article also mentions that the county fired their big shot lawyers. You remember them? They're the ones that the insurance companies said were going to stop bail reform altogether.

Again I call your attention to ABC's declaration recently that the Third Generation of Bail Reform has "imploded." This is about as far from implosion as you can get.

I'll conclude with something I wrote in my very first document about bail -- bail reform is inevitable. And yes, accordingly, it's a mistake to fight it. I think the insurance companies know that (although it's hard to tell what they actually know about bail), but they continue to fight perhaps because they understand the future of release and detention in America has no room for them. Theoretically, at least, there is (or maybe was) room for bail agents, but it looks like all of the fighting is really beginning to backfire on the entire industry.

Winter is coming.