Author: Michael Whitlock

It wasn’t an hour after SB-10 cleared the Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday on a 5-2 vote, I began getting phone calls from California bail agents.  Is this it, are we done?  Are we out of business?  No, we’re not done and we’re not out of business.  While California bail agents and surety companies operating in the Golden State do have a huge fight on our hands, we can prevail. Proponents of these two criminal welfare bills SB-10 and AB-42 are probably feeling good today, their side advanced the ball.  There are still many plays left before either of these two measures can cross the goal line and become law. There is an adage in legislative circles, it’s easier to kill a bill than to pass one.  Our aim and the…

 The 85th Texas Legislature is nearing its long-awaited conclusion. By all accounts that state’s long running bail system remains fully intact after a withering assault this session.  This legislature will be fallow in 2018 providing PBT’s Legislative Committee time to recoup after what could only be described as heroic efforts to fend off adverse legislation and keep Texas bail agents in business. It was ten long weeks ago on March 6, when Sen. Whitmire filed his bill, SB 1338.  The toxic measure was aimed at providing welfare to criminals, marginalizing the rights of victims and killing an entire industry.  In the months’ prior PBT was already alerting its members of Sen. Whitmire’s intention to file a bill that had the real potential to put them out of business. The Professional…

It wasn’t an hour after SB-10 cleared the Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday on a 5-2 vote, I began getting phone calls from California bail agents.  Is this it, are we done?  Are we out of business?  No, we’re not done and we’re not out of business.  While California bail agents and surety companies operating in the Golden State do have a huge fight on our hands, we can prevail. Proponents of these two criminal welfare bills SB-10 and AB-42 are probably feeling good today, their side advanced the ball.  There are still many plays left before either of these two measures can cross the goal line and become law. There is an adage in legislative circles, it’s easier to kill a bill than to pass one.  Our aim and the…

Truckee, CA bail agent Leeann Curtis with Mike outside the State Capitol. Sacramento, CA - The call went out to all California bail agents to come to Sacramento to show support for their profession and oh did the heed the call. Room 126 of the State Capitol was filled to capacity with bail agents as was the corridor outside.  If you were not a bail agent you were claiming to be one just to be part of the crowd.   Assembly Bill 42 was first up on the agenda Tuesday morning at he  Public Safety Committee hearing.  Assemblymen Bonta is the author of this sister measure to Senate Bill 10, whose author is Senator Hertzberg, also in attendance.  Bonta and Hertzberg introduced the bill with wonderful facts and figures that would impress anyone…

I was very nearly shanked with a plastic fork this morning as typically harmless ASC team member, Earon Jamison cut the line for the tater tot casserole and other assorted goodies for the Good Friday office pitch-in.  Fortunately for me, I’m battle tested and on high alert, particularly in this legislative season when just about anyone will launch an unwarranted and overreaching attack on the profession I love and respect. I am just one of hundreds of bail agents and my peers at the surety level, working tirelessly to protect and defend the continued use of bail bonds as an instrumental tool to guarantee criminal offenders appear for trial.  The American Bail Coalition (ABC) under the direction of current Chair, ASC CEO Bill Carmichael and Executive Director Jeff Clayton, have…

  Austin, TX - The Committee on Criminal Justice held a hearing at the Texas State Capitol, on Tuesday, April 4.  The hearing room was packed with bondsmen from around the state.  They traveled to Austin to register their opposition to Senate Bill 1338.  The measures underlying purpose is to put Texas bondsmen out of business.  The tension in the room was palpable. On behalf of ABC, I was among several representatives of the bail bond industry who registered to testify in opposition to SB 1338.  Also providing testimony were expert bail attorneys Ken Good and Randy Adler and Houston based bondsmen, John Burns and Rodney Vannerson.   Sen. John Whitmire (D-15) is the Chair of the Criminal Justice Committee and the author of SB 1338. In his introduction of…

I've been traveling in Texas this week with my youngest daughter Samantha.  The primary purpose of our trip was to tour the campus of Texas State University in San Marcos.  Sam wants to be a forensic anthropologist and TSU is one of the few universities in the country that operates a "body farm".   San Marcos is situated  between and San Antonio and Austin which is where I am staying on this Saturday morning.  Yesterday afternoon Sam and I, together with my sister Cheryl, who lives in Austin, took a drive over to Fredericksburg, Texas to check out the Chuck Wagon cook off where bondsmen Mike Byrd and his wife Debbie where participating.  The food was excellent the old chuck wagons were really amazing. Think Lonesome Dove or John Wayne's,…

I've been traveling in Texas this week with my youngest daughter Samantha.  The primary purpose of our trip was to tour the campus of Texas State University in San Marcos.  Sam wants to be a forensic anthropologist and TSU is one of the few universities in the country that operates a "body farm".   San Marcos is situated  between and San Antonio and Austin which is where I am staying on this Saturday morning.  Yesterday afternoon Sam and I, together with my sister Cheryl, who lives in Austin, took a drive over to Fredericksburg, Texas to check out the Chuck Wagon cook off where bondsmen Mike Byrd and his wife Debbie where participating.  The food was excellent the old chuck wagons were really amazing. Think Lonesome Dove or John Wayne's,…

As of Friday, Rolando Arriso is back in custody.  Arriso failed to appear in a New Jersey court in 2016.  His $100,000 bail bond was forfeited by the court, as a matter of course.  Once the bail agent determined the FTA would not be easily resolved, the case was assigned to a recovery team and the search for the fugitive was underway. Arriso proved to be elusive.  Once it was learned he fled to Florida, the recovery team spent hundreds of man hours and thousands of dollars in expenses in their efforts to apprehend Arriso.  After receiving a tip, Arisso was located and apprehended in a Tampa area Walmart parking lot where he was pulled out from under a vehicle.  It was reported he was wielding a tire iron and…

If the filing of a lawsuit in a Houston Federal Court in 2016 was not a sufficient wake-up call to Texas bail agents then perhaps the filing of legislation aimed to put them out of business might do the trick. I awoke at 4AM this past Wednesday morning to a flight to Austin.  I wanted to be on time for PBT’s first meeting of the year.  After a year off, the Texas Legislature was in session and criminal justice reform had been placed on the legislative menu in the form of multiple bills.  To my surprise this critical meeting was poorly attended with only the usual suspects taking time away from their businesses to show.  The usual suspects being most of the PBT Board of Directors, the association’s lobbyists and…