Not long ago I read an ABC post declaring a "Fourth Generation of Bail Reform," apparently marked by states coming to their senses to go back to using money. The inference, of course, is that ABC and the insurance companies are winning at this thing called bail reform.
But the other day I scrolled down the ABC Facebook feed and saw "Vote No in Oklahoma," "Vote No in North Carolina," "Oppose Bill in Colorado," "New York's New System is Bad," and "Oppose Bill in Nevada."
Oh, and those are just the ones at the top, and it doesn't look much like winning to me.
The irony is that the bail insurance companies brought all this on themselves. Starting many years ago, ABC chose to fight literally every reform initiative and ignore states when those states said they wanted to change. I should look to see whether these insurance companies are publicly held. If they are, it would at least make some sense that they would fight everything because they have a fiduciary duty to make money for shareholders. But even if, that's a pretty short-sighted strategy.
Fighting everything is why, even though money and bail agents are still lawful in NJ, the judges just don't use them anymore. It's why California is getting rid of them. Sure, ABC will fight that, but even if it wins California will just pass something that keeps money and dodges the industry. That's the inevitable result of, for example, publicly insulting the Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court. Yeah, ABC did that.
ABC and the insurance companies have made it clear that they intend to fight to the end. In doing so, they'll end up taking down the entire industry with them.
Winning? Nope.
A Fourth Generation? No, generations of reform take decades, and this one's just getting started.
