Jeff Brown Bail Bonds, LLC
RECENT BAIL INDUSTRY NEWS
VIRGINIA
Bondsmen battle government program
Bondsman bill advances
Date published: 1/28/2010
BY CHELYEN DAVIS
RICHMOND
--A battle between commercial bail bondsmen and the governments that fund pretrial services has come to Virginia. The House of Delegates' Courts of Justice Committee yesterday passed a bill that limits pretrial services to indigent defendants only.
The bill would not affect judges' ability to release defendants on their own recognizance.
The bill was sparked by a push from bail bondsmen, who say the pretrial services programs were effectively seeking to eliminate commercial bail.
Pretrial services are programs that allow some defendants out of jail before their trials without paying a bond. Instead, those defendants must meet certain criteria--submitting to drug tests, meeting with officers, or other conditions that are similar to being on probation.
The program is paid for by the state, with some money put in by localities; the state gave more than $7 million in 2008 for the program. Pretrial services programs do not operate in every locality; they're in 80 of 134 jurisdictions, according to the
Advocates of pretrial services say they help save state and local governments money by getting people out of jail. It's cheaper to pay for pretrial services, about $4.50 a day per person, than it is to keep someone in jail, which the Virginia Community Criminal Justice Association says runs about $66 a day (of which about $29 comes from the state). Advocates also say pretrial services help limit jail populations and reduce problems with overcrowding.
But bondsmen say the state is spending taxpayer money on "criminal welfare programs" and that people who can afford to pay bail to get out of jail should have to do so.
Fredericksburg bondsman Bill Weisband is a driving force behind the bill to limit pretrial services to the indigent. He says he got involved when he spotted a troublesome item on the national pretrial service agency's list of principles: the "abolition of compensated sureties." That means bail.
A bondsman will pay the bail in exchange for the defendant paying a percentage (usually about 10 percent) to the bondsman. If the defendant shows up in court, the bondsman gets the entire amount of the bail back.
Weisband said he has no problem with providing help for people who can't afford bail, or afford his bond. But, he said, he takes issue with taxpayer dollars going to a program to provide a service that is already done by a commercial industry.
"I'm not against anybody in pretrial services," Weisband said. "I do think that when you get in trouble, it's you and your family that should pay for your release. I don't want to pay for that."
The battle has also surfaced in other states, and Weisband's argument echoes similar arguments from other states--that pretrial services cost taxpayers money, while commercial bail bonding costs taxpayers nothing.
Del. Dave Albo, R-Fairfax, is the sponsor of the bill, and says he didn't get involved to help protect bondsmen's livelihood--he just wants to save the state money, and he thinks the pretrial services program has become too large and costly.
He said the state could save money by limiting pretrial services solely to indigent defendants.
"I'm saving the state $5 million because there's a private company out there that can do it," he said.
The Courts of Justice Committee heard more than an hour of testimony on the issue in a subcommittee earlier this week, and more testimony yesterday before the vote.
Pretrial services workers said their programs save taxpayer money, rather than waste it.
"The result [of the bill] will be increased jail populations and increased state and local costs," said David Pastor, director of the Blue Ridge Court Services program in Staunton.
Pastor said the people who will fall through the cracks if Albo's bill takes effect are those who aren't technically indigent (classified as making 125 percent of the poverty level), but still live paycheck-to-paycheck, and for whom paying even 10 percent of the amount of bail might be impossible.
The bill was opposed by the Rappahannock Regional Jail, whose representative, Capt. Ann Harris, said Stafford Sheriff Charles Jett and the Virginia Sheriffs Association also oppose the bill.
Harris said hiring one extra pretrial services worker last summer has already paid for itself in savings at the Rappahannock Regional Jail.
"Pretrial can save the jail costs," Harris said.
The Courts of Justice Committee approved the bill by a 13-to-7 vote, but it has to go next to the Appropriations Committee. After that it would go to the full House for a vote, then to the Senate.
