An unmitigated disaster

by Sara Ritsch
Staff Writer

The too-high incarceration rate has caused “Many States that have at least some politicians (and bureaucrats who would benefit)” to want to “end the practice of requiring surety or cash bail bonds for people accused of crimes,” according to the Bail Bonds Company Directory.

But, secured bonds serve two primary functions. “They increase the likelihood that a defendant will actually show up for his court date,” and “They provide a privately funded (non-taxpayer-funded) means for payment of recovery when defendants fail to appear.”

Without the bail bond system, the court’s statistics for failure to appear will increase and the taxpayers will pay the price – literally.

“With the bail bondsman, the individual is bonded to our custody,” says David Dunn, a bounty hunter at Abraham’s Bail Bonds in Oklahoma City. “We have the responsibility. That’s basically a bargain between us and the court.

“If you release them, we will make sure they do the things they are supposed to do. If they don’t, we will pick them up and return them or we will pay the rest of the bond to the court. So we have a vested interest in that individual. Our [bail bondsmen] success rate is over 95 percent nationwide,” he says.

Allowing a violent repeat offender to walk out of jail on low bonds or on the promise to show up for their court dates puts the public in danger. To rely on computerized risk assessment to govern whether or not a defendant is violent is insufficient.

Bail bondsmen provide accountability for the defendants, which is the one thing the court cannot guarantee, since no one else will come looking for a no-show. So, the bondsmen themselves can hire a bounty hunter. This cost is completely out of pocket; taxpayers see none of the price.

“Bail enforcement is an afterthought, and something bail bondsmen have to pay for,” Laurie Poole of Asset Bail in OKC explains. “A bounty hunter is hired to pick up the defendant out of pocket. If someone skips bond and forfeits, the bondsman has 91 days to pick them up. On the 91st day, if they aren’t found, the bondsman presents a cashier’s check to pay the full amount of the bond.”

That gives them incentive, thus increasing the court attendance rate and lowering the rate of repeat offenses.

“The biggest problem [for their incentive to show up],” Poole continues, “is the amount of fees, fines, and costs replaced as the true penalty for the crime. It’s a money-rich industry. They could afford to be bailed out if the system wasn’t robbing them constantly. That’s not taking responsibility off people accused of crimes, though, because it’s their fault too, but if someone is a repeat criminal, they shouldn’t be making bail anyway.”

So, if these people are released on their own recognizance, who would chase them down without bail bondsmen or bounty hunters?

Frank Delozier of OKC’s Thunder Bail says promptly, “The taxpayers’ money. The people. Law enforcement. And there’s already so much they have to take care of. That’s why we have bail bondsmen!

“There are no repercussions for not going to court except that they might come looking for you. You have bail bondsmen and bounty hunters, which are all private and paid for by the bondsmen. The public isn’t paying for it. Regular citizens aren’t paying for it.”

Abraham’s Dunn speaks against the release on recognizance program. “I’ve seen people fail to appear, then turn around and get released again on OR. A bond is an appearance bond. It’s an agreement to guarantee appearance. An OR release is ‘OK, you can go.’ There’s no bond to link these together.

“The last several years there’s been a push for pre-trial release. There’s also been movement that we incarcerate too many for too long, and it’s all one criminal justice reform movement.” Dunn directed The Gayly to Proposition 47 in California, which he calls “an unmitigated disaster.”

2014’s California Proposition 47 is officially called the Reduced Penalties for Some Crimes Initiative. Its purpose is to address the problem of overcrowding in prisons and to level the disproportionate penalties for certain crimes. Drug possession, fraud, shoplifting and theft of less than $950 become a misdemeanor rather than a felony, and criminals are released from prison. Oklahoma has now proposed laws like this.

In March, Gov. Fallin and the Oklahoma House passed and sent to the Senate:

• House Bill 2751 which would raise the threshold for property crimes to be charged as a felony to $1,000.

• House Bill 2472 which would give prosecutors discretion to file charges for non-85 percent crimes as misdemeanors instead of felonies.

• House Bill 2479 which would reduce the mandatory punishment for subsequent drug offenses.

• House Bill 2753 which would establish means for broader use of drug courts.

According to the report, “This really neutered the criminal justice system to hold people accountable for their crimes.”

Dunn agrees, and he sees a better alternative to reducing sentences as a way of lowering the incarceration rate – but it’s an alternative that propositions such as Prop. 47 put a stop to. “Drug court is a diversion program where if somebody’s at a point where they hit rock bottom, if they want help with drugs or alcohol they can benefit from counseling and treatment. At the end of the program most actually get rehabilitated.

“This is only open to felony offenders. So when we reduce drug related crimes, that drug court program isn’t available to them.”

If there are areas of the criminal justice system that need reform – and there are – the bail bonds system does not seem to be one of them. The alternatives for the high incarceration rate would increase the rate of rehabilitation and ensure defendant cooperation during their time of release.

“The point is,” Asset Bail’s Poole finishes, “without private bail, jails won’t make more money, the system won’t be fixed. But they’ll just put drug dealers, rapists, drunk drivers back out on the street who maybe wouldn’t be there if they couldn’t make bail. And you expect them to stay straight.

“What they need to do, instead of locking them up in an overcrowded prison, is they need to rehabilitate, readvocate and rejuvenate the people they’re putting in there. That’s what they need to do.”

The Gayly- 4/6/2016 @ 9:37 AM CDT