Bail and bail bonding have been invaluable parts of our criminal justice system since the country’s founding. They’re the way the state honors the presumption of innocence while at the same time providing an incentive for the accused to appear in court to face the charges against them. Those who are eligible for bail (not everyone is) either pay the amount in full themselves or contact a loved one who, in turn, contacts a bail agent who arranges for a bond. For the most part the system works reasonably well, as it has for centuries. But in some cases difficulties arise that muddle the situation and may imperil the ability of the accused to obtain or maintain pre-trial release.
Over the past couple of years immigration issues have been thrust into the limelight. Internationally we’ve seen European governments buckling under the strain of massive influxes from the Middle East and Africa. While on the national scene the question of how to deal with those in the country illegally has divided the nation along sometimes bitter partisan lines. Many people in Denver know of, employ or may even have started families with undocumented aliens. Sometimes, however, those persons are arrested, at which time their undocumented status is revealed. The question then often becomes: do they have the right to contact a bondsman?
Most people are aware that if they are arrested for driving under the influence or assaulting someone that they are going to be taken to the city or county jail. There, they’ll be processed before being offered bail. If they can’t afford to pay the full bail amount they then have the right to engage the services of a bail bondsman to help. But what if you or your loved one is not arrested for violating state or local laws? What if you or they are arrested for violating federal laws? Is the process the same? Are they taken to the same jail and processed in the same way? And most crucially, what about bail? Does it work the same way as it does for violations of state law?
Just about everyone we encounter at Rapid Release Bail Bonds is aware of the right to bail. But that’s not because they all paid close attention in social studies class. Instead, it’s because anyone who has ever watched Law and Order (or a hundred other police procedurals on TV over the past half century) has seen and heard bail discussed a thousand times. It’s part of the American vernacular. But while most everyone is aware of bail as a concept they’re usually a bit short on understanding the specifics. For instance; are juveniles eligible for bail in Colorado? If you asked 100 people on the streets of Denver that question you’d likely get 99 glazed looks.
For years now self-proclaimed “progressives” have been trying to put one over on the American public. This ongoing scam goes by the name “Bail Reform” and, like cultural termites, its advocates have been working tirelessly behind the scenes to promote an increasingly bizarre and untenable array of proposals aimed solely at putting the bondsman out of business.
For a time their notion of replacing bail with pretrial computer algorithms (that leverage big data to determine whether a person should be released or held pending their court date) gained quite a head of steam. So much so that several states, including California, adopted some variation of the concept.
Fortunately, a number of organizations who were at first gung-ho in their support of “risk assessment algorithms” (as they’re called) have finally seen the light. And in a major rebuke they, in concert with bail bonding companies, have formed a united defense against this short-sighted and fatally flawed system.
If you love fugitives walking the streets you’ll love the various efforts at bail reform being enacted across the country. One of the latest and most head-scratching of these efforts is that enacted in El Paso County, Texas. The good folks in that southern Texas county were anxious to address what they were told were injustices in the cash bail system. While most believed any changes would take the form of identifying those being wrongly held and rectifying the situation, what they got instead was a wholesale abandonment of the centuries old bail system and its replacement by a promise. Under the new system, in order to gain release, the defendant only has to promise to pay the bail amount if he or she fails to appear in court. And of course, no defendant would dare break such a promise. Would they?
To get your friends, loved ones, and colleagues out of jail as fast as possible all while providing superior service at the lowest possible price