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Using The Private Sector To Deter Crime
Public Bail: A System That Doesn’t Work
In addition to the commercial bail bonding system, we have a public bail system administered by tax-funded pretrial release (PTR) bureaus. These are usually operated by county governments, which historically were administrative subdivisions of state government. PTR staff members interview defendants and recommend to judges whether they should be released. In the public bail system, defendants rarely post any kind of monetary bond, usually being released under a personal recognizance bond. The defendant simply promises the judge that he or she will appear in court. As a consequence, the defendant has little or nothing to lose if he or she fails to appear."About 27 percent of defendants supervised on public bail fail to appear in court."
Origins of Public Bail.
Why do we have tax-funded bail? The system originated in the mid-1960s. Its original intent was to provide selective help for indigents charged with nonviolent crimes who couldn’t afford to post bond. But it rapidly evolved into an indiscriminate release mechanism to cap the jail population. It has failed miserably to accomplish any of its aims. "Defendants on public bail commit twice as many crimes as those on private bail." According to Gerald Monks, the Houston bail bondsman, defendants who can get no help from family, friends or coworkers usually - have robbed, lied to, or otherwise mistreated their friends, relatives, employees, or coworkers to the extent that they will not come to their rescue to pay bond. Many of them believe they (the defendants) should stay in jail.49Higher Fugitive Rates.
Since the salaries of PTR staff members do not go down when defendants fail to appear, they do not have the same incentives as private bail bondsmen to keep their fugitive rate to a minimum. And since the defendants bear no cost when they fail to appear, predictably the no-show rate is high. Studies showthat:50- As many as half of the criminal defendants released before trial by PTR agencies have previously jumped bail.
- Half of the defendants released have one or more prior felony convictions.
- Overall, about 27 percent of defendants supervised by PTR agencies fail to appear in court.
Higher Costs.
This poor performance harms the general public in two ways. First, the taxpayers pay a small fortune in rearrest warrants. Second, while on release, the defendants commit more crimes. In these respects, the PTRs contrast unfavorably with private agencies.51- A 1986 Department of Justice study found that PTR defendants committed twice as many crimes while awaiting trial as did defendants released on private bail.
- This poor performance persists despite the fact that PTR often releases the most attractive or eligible prisoners while private bail bondsmen deal with the remainder.
Administering public bail is expensive for taxpayers. For example, public bond cost $356 per defendant in Harris County (Houston), Texas, in 1992. The Harris County PTR agency had one staff employee for every 16 defendants it supervised, compared to one staff person for every 87 defendants supervised by a private bail bond company in Houston.52 Yet, as noted above, commercial bail agents have a fugitive rate that is less than one-third that of the public agencies.53 The only time the public police are likely to get prisoners on PTR release who jump bail is during a routine traffic stop when they check to see if the driver is wanted for any offense.54 Detectives, already burdened with caseloads of 60 to 200 cases, do not have the incentive or wherewithal to track them down. Many urban counties have more than 50,000 fugitives and the national total surely exceeds 1 million - and that does not include parole and probation violators.
Inadequate Standards.
"There are more than one million fugitives nationwide."Some criminal court judges refuse to deal with pretrial release agency bonds because they release felony defendants on their "honor" with “little or no recourse against them for failure to appear in court,- according to Judge Ted Poe, 228th District Court in Houston.55 The agencies should be abolished but, as with any government agency, this is a politically difficult feat. Failing that, some state legislators have tried to force PTR agencies to apply more responsible release criteria (the so-called Uniform Bail Act), including no release of those with prior criminal convictions or those who have "jumped" previous free recognizance bonds. These efforts have been prompted by high-profile, vicious crimes committed by felons released on PTR agency recommendations.56
Encouraging Irresponsibility.
Perhaps the worst thing about public bail is that it removes the pressure on the criminal to depend on his family and begin to rehabilitate himself. All recovery programs recommend support groups to help prevent relapses. Free bail separates the criminal from the support group that matters most - his family. "If you go over to the jail after a bond hearing, you’ll see these people getting out on pretrial release and they’ll all be high-fiving each other and they’ll be saying, ‘I can’t believe they bought that crap again.’ These guys have the system figured out,"says Frank Di Rocco, private bail bondsman.57