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, The Cowboys.
Texas is a great state and it’s where I first started my career in bail 35 years ago. When most people think of Texas they think of law and order and tough on crime, "they have the death penalty". If career politician Sen. John Whitmire of Houston gets his way, Texas’ tough image will soon get a makeover, for the worse.
Sen. Whitmire has authored SB 1338 which, if passed into law, would extend free release to criminal offenders all across the state of Texas with little regard to victims of crime and holding criminal offenders accountable.
While Sam and I return to Indianapolis tomorrow, I’ll be back in Austin in Tuesday to testify on behalf of ABC, in opposition to SB 1338, where it will be heard in the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.
Texas bondsmen and women should have received an email alert asking for their attendance at the State Capitol on Tuesday to show solidarity for the use of bail bonds as a means of guaranteeing criminal defendants appearance in court.
Our industry has a duty to represent law abiding citizens unfamiliar with the inner workings of the criminal justice system and just how the efforts of Sen. Whitmire’s would undermined public safety and accountability for criminal offenders in Texas. That effort must be derailed.
Links
PBT Call to Action!
All Texas Bondsmen Needed
Tuesday, April 4th, 2017 at 10:00 A.M.
Texas State Capitol – North Side
Texas State Capitol – North Side
1100 Congress Ave.
(Prepare to be in Austin for the day.)
(Prepare to be in Austin for the day.)
For more info call (903) 780-7731