Bail for the Poor

Earlier this week the New York Times had an article detailing the ways in which poor defendants are badly served by the existing bail bond industries that have sprung up in the New York area:

Vague laws and insufficient oversight have allowed some bondsmen in New York to return defendants to jail for questionable or unspecified reasons, and then withhold thousands of dollars to which they may not be entitled, according to lawyers, judges, state regulators and even some bondsmen.

Those cases turn the system on its head: Those who are supposed to give poor defendants a shot at freedom while their cases are pending are instead the ones locking them up and disenfranchising them further.

The laws “are open for exploitation,” said James Carfora, a Long Island-based bail bondsman.

“They need to be more specific,” he said. “If I bail a guy out today and I don’t like him, I can put him back in jail, and it’s O.K. To me, that’s screwed up.”

Complaints against bondsmen have risen in recent years, according to the New York State Insurance Department. Although the allegations may often involve only a thousand dollars, that sum can be the difference between freedom and detention for indigent defendants who make up most of bondsmen’s clientele.

This is depressing but not unfamiliar fare to those who serve indigent or impoverished defendants.  Lax regulations, a financially strapped court system, overburdened lawyers and ignorance on the defendants' part all add up to a criminal justice system that fails to uphold many important 6th Amendment rights.  The right to reasonable bail seems a simple one to ensure, and yet it, too, has been monetized and corrupted with little oversight.   Like many of the problems plaguing indigent defense, it is an issue that deserves further investigation, regulation, and reform. 

 

 

 

Comments

[Patrick S. O'Donnell]

Alas, most folks don't give a sh*t about the plight of indigent or impoverished defendants, and I suspect they possess little or no understanding or appreciation of Sixth-and Eighth Amendment rights apart, say, from the right to a public trial and trial by jury (even here, a precise understanding of these rights is elusive), thus the prospects of "further investigation, regulation, and reform" are quite bleak, particularly in the current economic climate. The right to effective counsel is egregiously violated on a daily basis owing to overwhelmed public defense lawyers in combination with insufficient constraints on prosecutorial power and discretion (I'll spare readers the citation of the relevant literature).

I nonetheless appreciate the post and I continue to look for evidence contrary to the above assessment. And I will do whatever I can in my (infinitesimally) small corner of the universe to bring about the requisite changes toward making our criminal justice system less "criminal" and more "just." I hope your readers and colleagues will find the motivation and wherewithal to do the same.