BAIL

I.          Most individuals charged with significant crimes gain release under some form of monetary bail.
    A.                 Four types of Bail
        1.                  Cash bond
        2.                  Property bond
        3.                  Release on recognizance
        4.                  Bail agent
    B.                 Conflicting bail theories
        1.                  Due process model
        2.                  Crime control model
    C.                 Context of bail setting—three factors
        1.                  Uncertainty
        2.                  Risk
            a.                  Potentially any defendant may commit a crime while on bail.
            b.                  Type 1 and 2 errors
        3.                  Jail overcrowding
            a.                  Prison overcrowding is a principal cause of jail overcrowding
            b.                  As jails become overcrowded, bail-setting practices become more     lenient.
    D.                Two important factors shaping bail guidelines:]
        1.                  Seriousness of the crime
        2.                  Prior criminal record
    E.                 Case dispositions
        1.                  General consensus that jailed defendants are more likely to be sentenced to prison than those on pretrial release.
        2.                  Results have been mixed.

II.        Bail bondsmen are an important part of the pre-trial release system.
    A.                 Bail bonding as a business
        1.                  Bail bondsmen charge a 10% fee for assuming the risk of the bond.
        2.                  Insurance companies charge about 30% of the bondsman’ fee for surety bonds.
        3.                  Bondsmen prefer to write bonds when both the bail and risk are low.
        4.                  The apprehension powers of bondsmen is less restrictive than law enforcement.
    B.                 Risk assessment
        1.                  Bad risks
            a.                  First-time offenders
            b.                  Recidivists with increasingly more serious crimes
            c.                   Violent defendants
        2.                  Criteria of financial reliability
            a.                  Employment history
            b.                  Family situation
            c.                   Community roots

III.       Bail bonding is an old and integral part of the criminal justice system.
    A.                 Key decisions on pretrial release have been transferred from public officials to private parties.
        1.                  Bondsmen help courts manage and control arrested persons.
        2.                  Bondsmen help courts keep some defendants from being released.
        3.                  Bondsmen have a reciprocal relationship with the courts.
        4.                  Bondsmen can use bail enforcement agents to apprehend bail jumpers.

IV.       Bail reform in the U.S. has taken a number of forms.
    A.                 The Bail Reform Act of 1966 created a presumption favoring pretrial release.
    B.                 The Bail Reform Act of 1984 authorizes preventative detention.
    C.                 Courts in some jurisdiction have replaced bail bondsmen.
        1.                  Pretrial service programs help to assess risk
        2.                  Pretrial service programs generally release those who would have made bail anyways.
    D.                Current bail reform trends are consistent with the crime control model.
        1.                  Preventing pretrial crimes
        2.                  Preventative detention to protect communities