This evening I was sent an email with a link to an interesting video on youtube in regards to bail bonds. This video speaks about a county known as Tarrant County, in Texas, that was experimenting with a new Pre Trial Release program that would allow accused criminal defendants the opportunity to pay 3% of their bail to the state instead of 10% to a bail bondsman. This new experimental system of course has guidelines in regards to who was eligible for this program. And it is drastically different then the Maryland Pre Trial Release program.
This Pre Trial Release program would essentially allow defendants to be released on cheaper bail in the hopes that they would return for court. Of course if the person was released on one of these 3% Pre Trial Release bonds there would be no liable party to care enough to hunt down the fugitive. The way the program was originally intended was to allow for non serious crime defendants, with clean records the opportunity to post these bonds.
To be eligible for this program the video mentions that the defendant must have
- No History of Bond Forfeitures
- No Previous Felonies
- No 1st Degree Felony Charges
The interesting thing about this is that Judges, in this county, still have the opportunity to make certain exceptions to this policy at their own discretion. The video discusses specific situations where a defendant violated at least one of the guidelines and was still given the opportunity to pay 3% to the state for release. This creates a major problem because when the person fails to appear for court, who will care enough to look for them?
This is an example of why Baltimore Bail Bondsmen such as the ones that work for Big Boyz Bail Bonds are so important here in Maryland. If Maryland were to adopt a program similar to this there would certainly be a larger amount of fugitives on the run for longer periods of time. With Bondsmen being responsible for the bond it gives them reason to bring the defendant back into custody. Please watch the video to learn more about this wild program that should certainly never come to mention here in Baltimore Maryland.
