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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.
More than $25M of Virginia taxpayer's money was wasted last year on this failed social service experiment. We're losing teachers, policemen, firefighters and other emergency services because there's no money. Yesterday in Richmond at least 20 pretrial govt employees showed to protest HB 728. Their wages cost us $3k-$5k. Stop this charade. End criminal welfare.
The legislature needs to do something about these government run criminal welfare programs. It is one thing for an indigent person to get bail at taxpayer expense, but criminals who can afford to pay their own way SHOULD NOT be released from jail with taxpayer funds!
We are cutting school budgets, eliminating middle school sports in Spotsy, and people still want to spend tax money on criminal welfare? These people from Rappahanock Regional and the Sheriff's office are completely out of touch!
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