Nine Reasons to go Slow on Bail Bond Reform

The problems of bail bond systems are similar in most states and the proposed solutions are much the same. Bail bond reform by means of establishing an OR (own recognizance) system is becoming a national trend. Once a reform of this kind does become popular with criminal justice personnel, there is a danger that we will stop studying it and assume that it must be good because other states and the federal government are doing it. It is very easy to believe that change itself is progress.

Alabama is struggling to join the national trend to overhaul its bail bond system. This paper starts with a brief description of a small empirical study done for the purpose of providing a rationale for introducing reform legislation. This study is used as a vehicle to illustrate how the problems and process of bail bond reform are national in scope.

The discussion of the national issues of bail bond reform is conceptually divided into three broad categories of problems: (I) bureaucracy issues; (2) cost effectiveness issues; and, (3) justice issues. Bureaucracy issues express concern about government casually displacing and destroying the private bail bond industry without studying the possible impact of such action. Cost effectiveness issues stress that the burden of cost will be shiftedfrom offender to taxpayer. Furthermore, the costs per arrestee are apt to be high and the total costs extremely high. Advocates of reform should, at a minimum, be prepared to tell taxpayers what the rejorm will cost. Justice issuesfocus on the court delay, as discussed by district court judges in testimony before Congress and the possibility that OR may, make criminal courts even less efficient than they are now. The issues raised in this paper deserve study before the private bail bond industry is destroyed.