Author: tkanger

I’m happy to be home in Indianapolis for a few weeks before embarking on the fall swing of state association meetings which begin next month.  While home, I was able to help get our three girls back to school and our son off to his first year of college. Go WKU Hilltoppers! How’s that? Back to the job and stark reality, a defendant was charged in Los Angeles recently for engaging in sodomy with another consenting adult, while sodomy is illegal in California, arrests are rare.   His bond was set and posted at one million dollars.  Conversely, in South Bend, Indiana a two time sex offender charged with yet another sex related crime involving a six year old boy was released on a $3000 cash bond by a St. Joseph County…

North Richland Hills,TX - Camp Esperanza is an annual summer camp for kids ages six to 18 who are battling cancer. The camp with its staff of volunteers of doctors, nurses and layman can handle 140 kids. There’s a waiting list. Former camp kid and current camp counselor Diana Garcia, who spoke during awards ceremony said the kids are laughing and giggling with excitement on the bus trip to camp and teary eyed on the trip back, they don’t want to leave.  It’s a slice of Heaven one week a year for these kids to interact with other kids who can identify with their health issues and medical needs. The Steven G. Whitlock Memorial Golf Tournament held its 22nd annual event this week at the Iron Horse Golf Course in North Richland Hills,…

There is a character in the book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, who dons a t-shirt with the slogan ARMAGEDDON WAS YESTERDAY – TODAY WE HAVE A SERIOUS PROBLEM. I laughed out loud knowing how germane this was to the state of the commercial bail industry. I vividly recall participating in a panel discussion at the 2006 PBUS Winter Conference, it was the year Dog and Beth Chapman made their first appearance. During this discussion I spoke about the expanding use of deposit bail and its threat to the commercial bail industry.   Dave Stuckman of Kansas receives certfificate for sponsorship. It was my opinion then as now deposit bail is a greater threat to the commercial bail industry than taxpayer funded pretrial service agencies.   Why? Because where public funded pretrial release…

Biloxi, MS – The Mississippi Bail Agents Association held its Annual Assembly and Membership Meeting at the IP Resort and Casino in Biloxi earlier this week. It was a two day meeting July 11-12 consisting of a board meeting on the first day with the general meeting held the following day.   The MBAA is very good about making each bail agent and guest feel welcome. At registration you’re provide an agenda, copy of the By-Laws, current balance sheet and an updated copy of the MBAA Bail Bond Court Procedures Manual, all this and a cool t-shirt to boot.   Each Mississippi bail agent must obtain 16 hours of continuing education prior to license renewal which occurs every two years. The MBAA has made it to where their members can earn eight hours…

Benjamin Franklin was known to have said, the only things certain in life are death and taxes.  So, while we believed the return of commercial bail to Wisconsin was certain, alas it was not to be, yet.  The amendment to the Wisconsin State Budget that would have returned the use of commercial bail bonds back to the State was stripped from the budget by Gov. Walker.   Reinstituting commercial bail would have resulted in improved appearance rates, millions of dollars in annual revenues generated from license fees, premium taxes and bond forfeiture revenue and more than 1000 new jobs.     Gov. Scott Walker stated in his Veto Message, " ...this (bail) provision..does not provide sufficient time to properly evaluate the proposal and to plan for appropriate regulation of this industry prior to the…

Then there were three.  Wisconsin is one of four states that currently does not permit money bail.  This may change as early as today.  The Wisconsin legislature approved the budget yesterday and shipped it off to Governor Walker for his signature.  The budget includes the reinstatement of commercial bail in Wisconsin which has been outlawed in this state since 1979.   The American Bail Coalition, of which American Surety Company is a proud member, has been behind the effort to bring commercial bail back to Wisconsin.  While ABC has been working the last three years to bring bail bonds back to Oregon, the process in Wisconsin has been significantly different.  With the Republicans winning control of both the House and Senate after the 2010 Mid-Term Elections, the state has been in a private sector fervor ever since. …

South Bend, Indiana – A number of concerned bail agents answered a call to action and made their way, from points all around the state, to South Bend on Wednesday, June 8.        The purpose of this call to action was to have as many bail agents as possible register with St. Joseph County Clerk of Court and the jail to write bail in a county which for the last 40 years has accepted only 10% of the bond in cash, no bail bonds accepted.   Needless to say, when 25 bail agents descended upon the county clerk’s office in South Bend it caused quite a stir. Phones were ringing all over town. What’s a bail bond? How do we file a qualifying power and what do we do with it…

This past week I attended the ISBAA Spring Meeting in Indianapolis and the TAPBA General Meeting and Continuing Education Class in Pigeon Forge. You could not pick two more distinctly different bail bond markets and associations if you tried. Both states have their market threats and both have an upside.   For starters, the number of licensed bail agents in Indiana has shrunk to 350 while Tennessee boasts around 1400 bail agents. Bail agents in Indiana must write with corporate surety backing while Tennessee has the option to write either through a surety or on personal assets.   Both Indiana and Tennessee offer classes for required continuing education. While the ISBAA had sixty bail agents attend the CE portion of the Spring Meeting, Tennessee had more than 350 in attendance at their class.  One…

The Alternative Bond bill SB11-186 died last night, after being assigned to House Appropriations, as the 2011 legislative session ended. The Alternative Bond, at its core, is a scheme for Colorado courts to engage in the bail bond business by collecting premiums normally paid to bail agents for posting a bail bond. Unlike the bail bond agent, the courts would have no risk of paying the full bond if a defendant was not timely rearrested after a failure to appear.   This concept is taken from the old government playbook; take your money with no responsibility to perform and cloak it in a disguise of being in the interest of public safety. SB11-186 had passed through the Senate last week by the narrowest of margins (18-17) and simply did not have sufficient time to…

Shelton, WA – The Washington State Bail Agents Association held its Spring Meeting at the Little Creek Casino south of Puget Sound last Thursday. The morning was devoted to continuing education with the general meeting held in the afternoon.   On the legislative front, nothing passed in the 2011 session that will impact bail in this state.  There has been significant debate on the issue of how much premium a bail agent should collect prior to posting a bond.   The amount included in legislation is 5% of the bond (50% of the premium). This bill is not expected to pass this year but we can expect to see it again in 2012.   I was surprised to learn of the expanding deposit bail operation in Washington. Apparently, there is no statute on the books…