The Professional Bondsmen of Texas- Blog

On October 5, 2026, the Honorable Judge Lee Rosenthal issued an memorandum opinion in the ODonnell case.  The court was ruling on a motion to dismiss the consent decree that was filed by 4 of the 16 misdemeanor judges.   By way of history, the judges had been arguing for sometime that the consent decree did not comply with SB 6 and more recently did not comply with SB 9 passed by the Texas Legislature in the most recent Texas Legislative Session.  Additionally, since the consent decree/settlement agreement was entered, all of the substantive rulings made by the trial court in ODonnell had been reversed by the 5th Circuit.  Further, in the Daves II en banc opinion issued by the 5th Circuit, the court of appeals specifically stated that both Daves and ODonnell should never have been adjudicated in federal court. The trial court issued her opinion because the 5th Circuit issued a writ of mandamus ordering Judge Rosenthal to rule on the motion to dismiss based upon Young...

In SB 6 and SB 9, the Texas Legislature made major changes to article 17.03 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure.  On this episode of the Bail Post we begin a new series placing a spotlight on changes to the Criminal Justice System of Texas that are set out in SB 9, SB 6 and several other statutes passed by the Texas Legislature. We will be highlightiing changes to Article 17.03 regarding the use of personal bonds in Texas.  In SB 6 the changes to article 17.03 was one of three major reforms set out in the bill.  In SB 9, artilce 17.03 was tweaked by adding an additional charge on which a defendant is not entitle to a persona bond (felon in possession of a weapon) and one charge was moved from group 3 to to group 2 (terroristic threat). PBT has a one page summary of the charges and their restrictions set out in article 17.03.  The document can be downloaded using the following LINK . Additionally, if you would like additional information regarding the YOLO County ...

On this episode of The Bail Post we look at the proposed Constitutional Amendment No. 1 for the State of Tennessee that will be on the ballot in November and its proposal to expand preventative detention.  Our guests are Shelly Alexander and Eric Granof.   Audio Podcast- Also available on- Apple Podcasts-            CLICK HERE Spotify-                        CLICK HERE Google Podcasts-        CLICK HERE Podcast Index-            CLICK HERE Amazon Music-          CLICK HERE Stitcher-                      CLICK HERE iHeart-                        CLICK HERE TuneIn + Alexa          CLICK HERE Podc...

What has been the Response of the Activists to the Increasing Numbers of Failures to Appear as a Result of the Simple Release Measures that they Push? There is a growing amount of data that now documents that the release measures pushed by the activists are damaging public safety.  In Texas, there is the Report of the Houston Police Officers Union that reviewed a weeks worth of data for the misdemeanor courts using almost all personal bonds and they found a failure to appear rate of over 75%.  To see more CLICK HERE .  Houston Court Watch complied two years worth of data using the same formulas and found an average failure to appear rate of over 83%.  To see more CLICK HERE . Over time other states and issued reports that confirm these shocking numbers.  The Cook County Illinois Clerk issued a report saying that the failures to appear for individuals released on simple release were over 70%.  The Yolo County District attorney appeared on a podcast saying th...

  Going Rogue:  How Radical, Reformist Prosecutors Are Endangering Public Safety by Ross Jackson Despite decades of bipartisan criminal justice reform and declining national crime rates, several U.S. cities have experienced increases in crime under the leadership of rogue prosecutors who abuse their discretion by refusing to enforce laws they disagree with and instead pursue lenient charges against violent criminals. These district and county attorneys implement formal or informal non-prosecution policies that violate their sworn duties, under-mine the rule of law, and erode public trust in the justice system. Data from the FBI indicates that during the tenure of these prosecutors, occurrences of several major crimes, such as murder and aggravated assault, rose. The crime rates in cities like Austin, Philadelphia, and Minneapolis illustrate correlations between the implementation of reformist prosecutorial policies and some rises in violent and property crime (FBI, n.d.). Stat...

How do you navigate the space in the bail reform debate when law enforcement and activists seem to be arguing contrary positions.  One example is the debate over defunding the police.  A study that was highlighted on Episode No. 71 of our podcast demonstrated that defunding the police increases crime immediately not only in the area that the police are removed from but the surrounding area as well.   Also, taking the police out of the community resulted in litigation that resulted in judgments against the city totaling over $32 million dollars. Nevertheless, activists continue to argue that defunding the police will actually make communities safer. How do we navigate between these two positions.  When activists have flooded google with pseudo studies that defy common sense how do we debunk them and find the real science? This is the subject of this episode of The Bail Post. Audio Podcast- Also available on- Apple Podcasts-          ...

Dr. Benjamin Hansen is the W.E. Minor Professor of Economics at the University of Oregon.  He is also the head of the Economics Department.  He Graduated from Birmingham Young University in 2004 with a B.A. in Economics.  He received his M.A. in Economics in 2005 and his PhD in Economics in 2009 from UC Santa Barbara. Dr. Hansen co-authored an article that is the subject of this episode of The Bail Post.  The citation for the article is:  Chalfin, Hansen, Weisburst and Williams, "Police Force Size and Civilian Race,"  American Economic Review:  Insights 4 (2); 139-58 (2022). The article addressed defunding the police and its impact on crime.  One of the conclusions of the study was that decreasing the size of the police force will increase murder rates and that will disproportionately negatively impact certain minority groups.  This means that decreasing the size of police will result in more murders and the number will increase even more for...