Over the past decade there has been a lot of controversy over the issue of bail. With so-called “reformers” - led by a private non-profit called the Arnold Foundation - claiming that the bail bonding system that has been in place for a thousand years is hopelessly racist and corrupt. And proponents of bail pointing out that, although imperfect, it has proven itself the most important cog in the justice system when it comes to ensuring accountability. For a time anti-bail zealots seemed to have the upper hand. But recently the tide has turned.
As more and more horror stories emerge from states that attempted to get rid of the bail bonds system more and more legislatures are seeing through the hard sell of the anti-bail lobby. Oklahoma recently became one of the latest states to reject the false arguments of the anti-bail zealots and vote to keep their existing system in place in the interest of public safety and justice.
You hear a lot from so-called “bail reformers” these days about how allowing virtually everyone walk free after being arrested is somehow going to create a safer world for you and me. It beggars belief that they actually find a few people who will drink that Kool-aid. But what’s happening from coast to coast in states where bail bonding has been abandoned in favor of catch-and-release should be enough to put the “safer world” fantasy to bed once and for all. New Hampshire is the latest example of a state whose lawmakers adopted catch-and-release in an attempt to seem “progressive” and is now paying the price. What are we talking about? Read on and find out.
Most people don’t realize it but the driving force behind the so-called “bail reform” movement of the past few years has been a non-profit called “the Arnold Foundation”. The Arnold Foundation began life almost a decade ago in search of a cause to champion and saw the bail bonds industry as an easy mark. They hired programmers no one has ever met to devise software no one understood that was supposed to take the risk out of releasing accused criminals, thereby rendering bondsmen obsolete.
Like a lot of other states Missouri has been flirting with the notion of eliminating cash bail during the past year. Anti-bail lobbyists have been busy working the corridors of power in Jefferson City trying to convince lawmakers to do just that. But while they debated the issue activists judges on the Missouri Supreme Court went ahead and changed the law themselves, imposing new rules in July that compelled courts to release more people on their own recognizance. One of those who was allowed to walk without bail in September was 23 year old Javier Alatorre.
We heard a lot during the recent attempt by anti-bail lobbyists to drag Colorado into the same hole New Jersey now finds itself in about how unfair and ineffective the cash bail system is. The entire bail bonds enterprise is corrupt and needs to be abandoned, those lobbyists and their political allies warned. What you didn’t hear were facts to back up their arguments. Nor did you hear any concrete suggestions about how the system could be tweaked to address their concerns. Just “it’s unfair and must be discarded.”
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