Bail Bond Industry Addresses the War on Public Safety

WASHINGTON, DC--(Marketwire - Oct 9, 2012) - In response to two recent white papers published by the Justice Policy Institute, the American Bail Coalition today released a critical analysis of the two publications.

"We felt that the outrageous claims and lamentable lack of truth presented in the two JPI documents needed clarification and a strong response," says Dennis Bartlett, Executive Director of the American Bail Coalition. "For whatever reason, this self-proclaimed anti-bail organization has declared war on the criminal justice system and the commercial bail bonding industry. A declaration that, in our opinion, is done at the expense of public safety."

ABC's response to JPI's whitepapers is outlined in a document entitled "The War on Public Safety: A Critical Analysis of The Justice Policy Institute's Proposals for Bail Reform." The response is outlined as 18 key points that are presented in the JPI documents. Each position JPI has taken is followed up with a "Bail Truth" which Bartlett describes as a clarification of the claims provided by JPI. "We don't have a problem with people being critical of the bail bond industry," adds Bartlett. "Our issue is when the argument being made against us in such a public fashion is based more on opinions and ideology than on facts or research. What we have done in our response is try to address each claim presented in the JPI materials with a corresponding 'fact' of correction."

The concept of bail bonding is nothing new. It has existed in the United States since our forefathers brought the concept over from England almost 250 years ago. It is included in the United States Constitution as the Eighth Amendment. According to Bartlett, "the commercial bail bonding industry has existed for so long for one reason and one reason only...it works. When someone is financially on the hook for their performance (or appearance as in the case of the bail bond industry), they will always perform better than if they have no financial risk."

Bartlett's comments are not based solely on his own opinion, but rather are supported by over 20 years of research conducted by the Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. This research shows that financially secured release (commercial bail bonding) outperforms all other forms of release, specifically unsecured release, which is the type of release supported by JPI.

"We are actually confused and shocked about the claims being made by JPI in their reports. The bail industry has been around for a long time and we have large amounts of evidence and research which supports our superior results and performance," says Bartlett. "Ultimately, isn't that what it should be about, performance? Especially when the stakes are so high and you are talking about things like public safety."

If you would like to get a copy of ABC's critical analysis, please contact Dennis Bartlett at the American Bail Coalition at 877-385-9009 or email Dennis at DNABIC@aol.com. You can also download a copy by clicking on the following link: The War on Public Safety: A Critical Analysis of The Justice Policy Institute's Proposals for Bail Reform.

About ABC
The American Bail Coalition is an association of surety insurance companies specializing in producing surety court appearance bonds. The mission of the association is to protect, defend, and expand the surety bail industry.