[T]he agents estimate that their businesses are losing $100 million a year because of the scheme, which is known in law enforcement circles as “capping.”   “It’s impacting my business and there’s illegal activities going on inside the jails . . . to the detriment to the people who are playing by the rules,” Bob Drake, one of the bondsmen who filed the claim, said Friday …

According to the bondsmen’s attorney, Richard P. Herman, former Sheriff Michael S. Carona allowed his top lieutenant, former Assistant Sheriff George Jaramillo, to initiate the scheme, and current Sheriff Sandra Hutchens has allowed it to continue.

In a statement, the Sheriff’s Department said it is in regular contact with leaders of the bail bond industry and will review the claims to determine if an investigation is warranted.  “If we are made aware of any illegal activity in our jails, we will take all appropriate action to see that it is stopped and those responsible are prosecuted,” the statement reads.

Sheriff’s Spokesman Steve Whitmore said Baca is examining the current bail schedule for nonviolent offenders and wants to discuss with judges the prospects for reducing some of types of bail. Baca does not have the power to change the bail schedule, which would require the support of judges as well as prosecutors and public defenders.   Whitmore said that if more offenders could afford bail, fewer of them would be incarcerated at the jails, allowing the sheriff to house violent offenders longer.  The LA Times reports:

Baca said closing the downtown Los Angeles jail, which would greatly reduce the capacity of the county jail system and lead to more early releases of inmates, might be necessary to bridge what he estimates will be a $72-million gap in his budget.  But he was criticized today by some county officials. County officials said they have requested that he draft preliminary plans to reduce his $2.5 billion budget by [just] $62 million …

Some supervisors suggested areas ripe for trimming. “If the sheriff can’t find the savings, we’re willing to help him,” said Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, noting that the department’s administration budget has increased by 151% over the last 10 years and the patrol budget has increased by 115% over the same period. “The amount of overtime the sheriff spends is a scandal,” Yaroslavsky added. “We’ll be releasing numbers on that in the coming days.”

Maj. Gen. Ali Al-Harithy, director general of prisons in Saudi Arabia, said that a plan was under way to introduce alternatives to imprisonment, including parole and posting bail. The Interior Ministry would soon make public the rules and regulations of the new system, he added. “The move is not aimed at reducing the pressure in Saudi jails,” Al-Harithy said in comments published in an Arabic daily. “Our objective is much nobler and greater than that. We want to put in jail only those who deserve it.”

Justice Minister Abdullah Al-Asheikh also spoke about alternative punishments recently. “We have already distributed questionnaires among judges to elicit their opinions and proposals on alternative punishments. Many judges favor the idea saying it would contribute to reforming the accused,” the minister said.

There are 104 prisons and 12 reformatories across the Kingdom, the Arabic daily said, adding that about 32,000 of 44,600 inmates in Saudi jails are foreigners. Nearly 4,000 youngsters aged between 12 and 18 are living in reformatories …

The prisons chief said the bylaw of the new system is being prepared carefully with the participation of different agencies in the light of the best practices in developed countries. The alternatives include releasing suspects on bail.  As punishment, suspects may be asked to do social services, such as cleaning mosques and schools or taking part in activities of charitable organizations or serving patients in addition to other activities that are beneficial to society.

Al-Harithy narrated the benefits of these alternative punishments. “Jail terms have become a burden for the prisoner as well as his family. We have seen some prisoners returning to jail after being released. This forced us to study alternatives to imprisonment in the light of the experiences of developed countries.”  Al-Harithy said about half of the prisoners in Britain spend their term outside prison. “Some countries have adopted very good alternative punishments. We have studied all these best practices to implement a better system,” he added.

No one arrested in the county in a criminal case will be freed on bail until they have been fingerprinted and photographed, Sheriff Joseph G. Groody said in announcing a measure, which was approved by the county Prison Board. The move, he says, merely enforces the law.  “Every time you’re arrested in a criminal case, you have to be fingerprinted and photographed,” said Groody, a former Ashland police officer.

The policy, which already is in effect, should reduce the number of people being arrested for not having those done — which is a violation of their bail conditions. “We did have a problem with people just walking out of prison and going home without being fingerprinted,” said Roy J. Eiler, a former Pottsville police officer who runs the county Central Booking Office where fingerprinting and photographing are done. “They didn’t obey a condition of their bail. Failure to do so results in a warrant of arrest being issued for default in required appearance.” That, in turn, led to more arrests, and more avoidable criminal cases, Groody said. “It’s a big workload in the (magisterial district judges’) offices,” he said. “That’s what I’m trying to alleviate. Its going to make a big saving in the magisterial district judges’ workloads.”

Eiler said the policy conforms to the state Crimes Code, which requires fingerprints to be taken after all arrests. Furthermore, magisterial district judges also order fingerprints as a condition of a defendant’s bail, he said. In spite of that, many defendants don’t comply with the requirement, Eiler said. “They try to evade it. It’s to their benefit to try to evade it,” he said.

To those charged with keeping a lid on Britain’s growing prison population, they are a common-sense method of coping with defendants going through the courts, and with inmates who have been released from prison.  However, for many of those who live near them, the bail homes – unsupervised and without formal planning approval – threaten to create a haven for drug addicts and become a magnet for crime.   Petitions are frequently started by neighbours fearful of burglars, predatory paedophiles or violent thugs.

However, the government maintains that much misinformation surrounds the homes and that they never house high-risk offenders.  Those who cannot be sent to bail houses include anyone convicted or accused of sexual offences, murder, arson, causing death by dangerous driving, weapons offences, cruelty to children or racially-aggravated crimes …

Private firm ClearSprings now runs 166 homes, with room for 613 people. They are ordinary two-to-five-bedroom houses in residential areas and, unlike traditional bail hostels, they have no on-site supervision …  Opposition Justice spokesman Dominic Grieve said there would always be a need for bail hostels but favours the traditional model, with permanent supervision.”These are not really bail hostels, they are places for people to be sent on early release,” he said, referring to the government’s controversial policy of releasing people early from prison sentences to ease overcrowding.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman acknowledged the pressures on the prison system but said early release prisoners made up a minority in ClearSprings accommodation … “These are people who would be bailed into the community but who, for whatever reason, don’t have a home to go to,” he said …  As the government points out, many of those who stay in bail houses have not been convicted of any crime.

The courts, many experts say, are embracing home-confinement technology as it becomes available and as affordable ways of using it are developed. The more common use is for home detention after conviction, but use of pretrial electronic monitoring with electronic ankle bracelets and other devices is growing. “The general public is chafing under paying taxes for prisons,” said Marc Renzema, a criminal justice professor at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania, who tracks the impact of monitoring and confinement techniques. The expense of prisons is the “driver” of increasingly elaborate bail agreements, he said, noting that, nationally, the number of offenders being monitored electronically grew from zero in 1982 to between 8,000 and 9,000 in 1990. Today, Renzema said, as many as 200,000 Americans — most of them already convicted, and some having served prison time –are being monitored electronically.

Much of the article is about the kind of security conditions imposed on alleged criminals who have lots of money to protect them from the every-day jail experience.

When the Muttontown NY couple convicted of keeping domestic servants in slave-like conditions were granted bail before their trial last year, they temporarily escaped imprisonment. But the home Varsha and Mahender Sabhnani returned to was hardly sweet: Their activities, communications and visitors were monitored 24 hours a day by private security guards — a system that cost the couple about $15,000 a day … All doors are locked and only armed security guards hold the keys to their Muttontown home. Guards are posted at two of the doors at all times. The alarm system code was changed, and only guards know the code. All communications are monitored by another guard in the home’s basement. Only one phone, one computer and one fax machine can be used, and all conversations must be in English. Two children with severe diabetes can keep cell phones for medical emergencies; all calls are monitored …

Some of the conditions for the pretrial release of David Brooks, who is accused of looting DHB Industries:

• Post $400-million personal-recognizance bond, secured by $48 million in assets.
• Surrender passport.
• Remain in an apartment in an undisclosed location, where he is monitored through an electronic bracelet.
• Employ a security firm approved by the U.S. attorney’s office. The firm posts two guards, at least one of them armed, who can use “reasonable force” to detain Brooks if he attempts to flee.
• Access to only one computer in the apartment with one Internet connection.
• Consent to unannounced searches by the security firm.
• Monitoring of any visitors to the apartment, who are limited primarily to family and attorneys.
• Movement outside of the apartment is restricted to court appearances and doctor appointments, and only after notifying the U.S. attorney’s office.

More details in the article.

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.