Many District Courts, including ten in the FrontRange, have pre-trial service programs to help judges decide which defendants should go straight to jail, bond out, or join a diversion program.  These services need funding, and SB11-186 looks to get the money out of defendant bail bonds.

Defendants needing a bond typically turn to bail bondsmen to put up the 5% or 10% deposit they need to stay out of jail. Many times, bondsmen will allow defendants to pay for the bond in weekly installments because they can't afford the whole amount.

Pre-trial services, as yet, are not in the bail business.  They help judges assess defendants for bail worthiness.  They also oversee pre-trial surveillance and other conditions of release such as drug testing and work. Pre-trial services also help with drug diversion programs and community service.  But today, it's the bail bondsmen's job to make sure the defendant gets to court for trial. If the defendant doesn't appear, bail bondsmen are liable for the full bond.

SB11-186 allows defendants to bail themselves out by putting up 15% of the bond with the court's pre-trial service programs. Sponsored by Sen. John Morse (D-CoSpgs) and Rep. Mark Waller (R-CoSpgs), the bill essentially replaces the bail bondsmen with state staff. It puts the state in the middle of collecting bail "to enrich the public treasury," which, according to the Colorado State Supreme Court in its Smith v. People decision, "is no part of the object at which the proceeding is aimed." Bail is "to serve the convenience of the party accused but not convicted, without interfering with or defeating the  administration of justice."

No one knows at this time whether the bill will make money for the state or lose it. When defendants make it to court for trial, the state will return the 50% not taken for the pretrial services programs.  Under SB-186, when defendants jump bail, the state will probably lose money, sometimes substantial amounts, because no bail bondsmen or insurance companies will cover the cost of catching the defendant, as they do today. The brunt of that work, as well as the cost, will devolve to the state's sheriff's office.

Under today's system, bail bondsmen put down a cash deposit and provide the courts with a bond power, issued by insurance companies, that defendants will come to trial.  If defendants don't appear, bondsmen have a financial incentive to track them down. If bondsmen or bounty hunters find defendants in other states, they are responsible to pay extradition costs to the Colorado sheriff who will pick up the defendant. It can cost anywhere from $6000 to $10000 to pick up bail jumpers and return them to Colorado jurisdiction.

If bondsmen don't locate their defendants within a certain timeframe, they are forced to pay the full amount of the bond to the court.  If the bondsman can't pay that amount, the insurance company securing the bond must pay or face a $500,000 fine from the state's insurance commissioner.  That makes two entities with strong incentives to find the defendant - the bondsmen and the insurance companies. The state simply waits for the money to come in, or the defendant, or both.

If pre-trial services handle these situations, the state may lose the whole bond amount as well as their defendant.  The state will  have to collect the remaining bond security from defendants themselves, which is unlikely. 

The present bill, as structured, greatly expands the responsibilities of pretrial services into new territory.  Under SB11-1186, a wealthy defendant, such as a drug kingpin or Ponzi schemer, can post a 15% bond with pretrial services and vanish with no one to search for them, because they can afford to.  What then?

Many questions exist as to whether these added responsibilities are a good use of pre-trial services' time and resources to do this job effectively.  The bill's fiscal note says it cannot determine how the bill will affect state funds.

The bill passed the Senate on an 18-17 vote. It has moved to the House with three days to go. PEN  5-9-11

 

This post was published on May 9, 2011. Permalink »