Republished- A Judge's Take on Surety Bonds- A View from the Bench

by Cynthia Stevens Kent, former judge of the

114th Judicial District Court

Smith County, Texas

Having served as a judge in Texas since 1984, one lesson has been clear . . . if you want a defendant to timely appear in court to answer charges filed by the State of Texas, make sure there is a surety bond posted. Without the efforts of sureties in posting bonds, our county jails would be severely overcrowded. Without the efforts of sureties in monitoring and notifying criminal defendants of court dates there would be such delays in prosecution of cases as to interfere with the due and proper administration of justice in Texas courts. 

Smith County, Texas has experienced, as many Texas counties have over the past few decades, enormous jail overcrowding problems. From the two-cell jail built in Smith County in 1856 at a cost of $8,000 to the current three facilities certified to hold 750 inmates and a new 59.6 million dollar jail bond proposal for an additional 694 beds, the problems of jail overcrowding demonstrate the needs for effeetive tools to deal with crime, eriminal proseeution, and public safety through proper and timely case disposition. 

In May of 2004, Smith County was ordered to start shipping inmates out of their overcrowded jail to comply with Texas jail standards. While the Smith County Commissioners struggled to address the overcrowding problems, the local district and county court at law judges tried to reduce the jail population by expediting jail cases and began liberally granting personal recognizant bonds to non-violent offenders. Initially the plan worked to reduce the number of incarcerated inmates. However, within months the problems of not requiring surety bonds became obvious. 

More than half of the inmates granted personal recognizant bonds failed to appear at their initial court hearings, although properly notified of their court dates. The resulting problems grew over the months as the number of bond forfeitures in Smith County sky rocketed and the court's dockets became backlogged with outstanding warrant cases and new felony failure to appear indictments. Instead of reducing the jail population, the personal bonds issued resulted in more criminal cases, defendants now were held in jail with high bonds that even a surety would not post, and then the predictable increase in the local jail census crises. 

The results of not requiring surety bonds resulted in more work on the already overworked law enforcement officers. Now they had to go out and re-apprehend the same defendants. This work was made more difficult by the fact that with a personal recognizant bond, there had been no one keeping track of the whereabouts of these defendants. Additionally, law enforcement now had to prepare another monntain of paperwork associated with the re-arrest of these defendants. 

Not only did the lack of surety bonds increase the work of law enforcement officers, but now the prosecutors had not one but two cases to investigate, evaluate, and prosecute. In addition to the original arrest charge against the defendants, they were now preparing cases, seeking indictments, and prosecuting multiple felony failure to appear cases. The Courts now had double the cases on their docket for those defendants granted personal recognizant bonds. It was clearly a lose-lose concept for jail popnlation reduction. 

Many counties have seen, but not yet appreciated the benefits of surety bond supervision. The ability of the local bonding agent to obtain and verify accurate personal information on criminal defendants before writing a bond is an enormous asset in assuring that defendant's appearance in court for case disposition. The business motivation of the bonding agent to require their client to keep in contact with the bonding company is obvious and results in better communication regarding required court appearances and overwhelming success in securing the defendant's attendance at all court hearings and trials. If a defendant fails to appear in court, as ordered, the surety is immediately working to locate and secure the appearance of the absent defendant in court or surrender the defendant into custody. With a personal recognizant bond only, the court issues the failure to appear warrant and hopes that someday the defendant will run a red-light and a warrant search will result in apprehension. The benefits of the immediate surety search and apprehension of a criminal defendant over the happen-stance of red-light running apprehension is obvious. 

If the goal of the Texas Penal Code is public safety, as defined by the Texas Legislature, then the role of the surety bonding company is a critical part of that protection of public safety. By helping safely reduce the jail population by posting well-researched and secured bonds, the surety bonding agent allows for more jail space for the violent offenders who public safety demands remain incarcerated until their case is properly adjudicated. By supervising and notifying bonded defendants of court dates, the surety bonding agent allows the criminal justice system the time to properly evaluate each case on its merits and then timely dispose of the cases in a court of law. By quickly locating and apprehending absconding defendants, the surety bonding agent save valuable law enforcement, prosecutorial, and court time and protect public safety and the pocketbooks of the taxpayer. 

In these tight budgetary times, the utilization of the surety bail bondsmen should be considered a cost saving and public safety tool to the criminal justice system. In our search for ways to reduce the jail population, Smith County has found that the rush to grant personal recognizant bonds to reduce the jail census ultimately had the opposite effect. While the setting of the bond amounts must be reasonable so that a defendant can obtain the funding for posting a bond, the protection of the surety supervised release of defendants has been and remains a valuable tool to the criminal justice system. 

Original Publication Date- August 12, 2008.