I haven't written for a while, but it's not because nothing is happening.
I've constantly warned that ABC's anti-bail reform strategy, which includes personal insults, misleading information, and attacking any and all efforts at bail reform no matter how minor, would backfire. I've now heard from two states working on pretrial reforms that refuse to have anything to do with ABC whatsoever. There are likely more.
When I also heard some ABC legislative testimony the other day, I realized that the falseness of one particular claim was so easily refutable that it was puzzling that nobody did it on the spot. ABC is now being ignored, and it's taking the entire industry down with it.
Bail agents, you have given up your power to the bail insurance companies, but their strategy is a scorched earth strategy. It's scorched earth because even the most minor and common sense reforms to the bail process likely mean that the insurance companies will lose money. The only way through this thing for agents was to break free from the insurance companies, help the states change (for they all do, in fact, want something to change), and then try to be a part of the solution even if it meant making a little less money. I'm not sure that's even possible anymore.
I've given up talking to states about eliminating money bail, which is why I haven't written about it for such a long time. Now, the elimination of money bail seems inevitable. These days I'm working solely on what states will do when money bail is gone.
And really, what states do when money bail is gone is -- or at least could be -- fundamentally a bail agent issue, but it's not an insurance company issue. You could still be a part of the criminal justice system, but you're going to have to shake loose from ABC and the insurance companies to make that happen.
