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With all the confusion and misinformation currently being portrayed about our industry by the Pretrial Services movement, I just wanted to take a moment and share my thoughts. As the various organizations quote skewed numbers and make references to the mentally ill and poor only to further their agenda, I want to discuss real issues without using personal labels to conjure up false statements.
Privatized bail is a line of insurance that protects the courts from the need to use tax dollars in order to monitor people that have been accused of crimes. It is the private bail companies that help the government, at no cost to the taxpayer, to locate and produce defendants that have failed to appear in court or violated other conditions of bail set by the judge. I will also add that by utilizing the private bail system, the government is able to tax our bail premiums and collect full bond amounts, in the event of a failure to appear and conditions have not been met. These funds that are collected put tens of millions of dollars back into state and local budgets without causing a burden to the regular taxpayer. I would ask that the members of the criminal justice system and members of local and state governments stop buying into the false hope that government entities can do better.
These extreme groups are pushing an agenda and using professional bail to make way into this industry under false reasoning. I just ask that you take time and look into the various groups that are primarily behind these efforts. These groups are targeting the poor and mentally ill to push their cause with no respect to the fact that not all poor or mentally ill commit crimes. In reality, the criminal justice system is supposed to be about good vs. evil and right vs. wrong, not about specific classes of people. It is through this agenda that these groups are indirectly saying that the sound judgement of the courts’ ruling is no longer needed as they want to control the system themselves. In other words, these groups do not actually want to change the system, they just want to change who makes the decisions.
Life in this country without the current bail system would cause many issues, as we are now seeing, in all areas which do not allow private bail systems. It’s absurd to hear people say bench warrants and failure to appear warrants are increasing but they fail to discuss the increasing amount of criminal defendants. In other words, statistically, if the amount of cases increases so will the amount of failures to appear. Did you know that this is in fact because of the “get out of jail free” system and not due to the private bail system? I challenge anyone to review their counties failure to appear warrants and you will see that the private sector is the best option. Look to see how many failure to appears’ are done with a professional bail company vs. people under the control and supervision of a government run program.
I find it disheartening to hear the talks in Washington DC about how much they have saved from letting people walk out of jail when the crime rate is one of the worst in the land. “Get out of jail free” systems will create some of the lengthiest criminal histories for individuals you will ever see. There are certain misdemeanor crimes that are indicators to a potentially more serious threat of more heinous intentions. For example, a person released on a peeping tom charge may be gathering the nerve to commit the more serious crime of rape. A loitering or prowling charge can be an indicator of a person looking to commit an armed robbery. Do the far left not understand the correlation in these charges? Their self-interest agenda will put everyone in jeopardy.
For years we have heard the injustice of money bail in California. Today, I read an article out of California of how inmates can pay to upgrade their jail cell. I guess the jails are not overcrowded like we have been told and the inmate with more money can relax in the penthouse. There is an agenda we all need to be aware of and it is not what they are saying on the surface. These types of incidents are happening all over the country. A prime example is a “No professional bail” state such as Kentucky is beginning to increase private corrections facilities. Please, take a moment to look at what is happening in your industry and become aware of the agendas we are facing.
Areas without Surety Bail that will suffer:
- Increased felonies due to non-secured bonds on misdemeanors
- Increasing taxes placed on working families
- Victim’s ratios per capita will increase
- Growing criminal records
- More obligations placed on Law Enforcement
- Property values decrease due to crime rate
I personally am tired of hearing the misinformation being released about our industry and would like to grow our voice. Join me in this endeavor and take an interest in the information I am providing you. It is time for everyone to come together and fight against this false reasoning and hidden agenda.
Scott Willis
