I have an opinion and here tis....
Quote:
Rabner highlighted a study issued last year by the Drug Policy Alliance which showed that twelve percent of defendants are being held in county jails at taxpayer expense because they can’t come up with the money to cover bail of $2,500 or less.
Having been writing bail for 14 years... in Virginia... I can probably number on two hands the people that have not been able to come up with $250 for a $2500 bond... my take is that if they can't raise $250, they probably need to stay in jail just to have 3 hots and a cot because they are probably homeless....
Quote:
Bail bond agents say <<>> They are questioning why the state would resolve to spend taxpayer money to screen pretrial defendants when agents perform a similar task at no cost and assume the financial risk for making sure defendants show up in court.
Now that is a mouth full.... you are trying to replace a totally private business that is completely self supporting with a government based run organization that depends almost entirely on tax dollars... how can that be cost effective... not to mention the overwhelming burden of finding those that decide (since no one is monitoring them to any degree) not to come to court and FTA...
Quote:
And, Furlong said, more judges should be using the so-called 10 percent option, which allows defendants to post a portion of their total bail in cash. For instance, a defendant with a $25,000 bail would be allowed to post $2,500 through a bail bondsman.
Not sure I understand that statement... I am not familiar with NJ bonding laws but that 10% is what we operate on in Virginia... no option, just the law... and I might ad that most of the bonds I am writing and have written over the years are for the most part... under $25,000... in fact... most are under $10,000 in my AO... I can number the bonds I have written over $50,000 on my two hands in the past 14 years... of course, I do live in a very rural area... and although we sometimes get the big city boys down here... most of the time, they choose to stay up in the bright lights where the monies at....
