Bail For Profit: A U.S.-Only Industry
In England, Canada and many other countries, agreeing to pay a defendant’s bond in exchange for money is a crime akin to witness tampering or bribing a juror — a form of obstruction of justice.
Other countries almost universally reject and condemn [the bailbondsman's] trade, in which defendants who are presumed innocent but cannot make bail on their own pay an outsider a nonrefundable fee for their freedom. “It’s a very American invention,” John Goldkamp, a professor of criminal justice at Temple University said of the commercial bail bond system. “It’s really the only place in the criminal justice system where a liberty decision is governed by a profit-making businessman who will or will not take your business.”
… Most of the legal establishment, including the American Bar Association and the National District Attorneys Association, hates the bail bond business, saying it discriminates against poor and middle-class defendants, does nothing for public safety, and usurps decisions that ought to be made by the justice system … Commercial bail bond companies dominate the pretrial release systems of only two nations, the United States and the Philippines.
The New York Times article is a fascinating look into this business that is a thriving part of our North American industry.
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