Call to Action No. 2- SB 1151 by Whitmire Creates a Huge Unfunded Mandate for Counties

 

Asking For Your Help- Email No. 2

This is the second of our 3 emails that are planned before the hearing on SB 1151. On Tuesday, March 21, 2023 at 8:3O am., the Senate Criminal Justice Committee will hold a hearing on SB 1151 by Whitmire. The bill seeks to regulate for the first time what bondsmen charge in Texas. This bill grew out of Harris County when local officials sought to blame bondsmen as the cause of increasing crime on the grounds that bondsmen work with families; instead of placing the blame on judges who have refused to do their jobs.

Right before the primary last year, the Harris County Bail Bond Board enacted a local rule that required bondsmen to collected 10% of the face amount of the bond before posting the bond for a host of charges. This local rule is the subject of pending litigation and is before the one of the Houston Court of Appeals. We anticipate a ruling in the next 30 to 60 days. Since the enactment of the local rule, the Sheriff of Harris County has requested additional funding of $28 million for what he referred to as "unsustainable" jail overcrowding. Also, the Harris County Jail is now out of compliance with state jail standards.

In the meantime, Senator Whitmire and Representative Ann Johnson have filed bills to require all bondsmen to collect 10% of the face amount of any bond before it is posted seeking to bring the Harris County idea of criminal justice to the entire state.

There are several ways you can get involved. If you are able come to Austin, Texas on Tuesday morning to file out cards opposing SB 1151. This small act can make a big difference. You will not be asked to testify before the committee. We are coordinating the issues that we want to raise and anticipate that our issues will be presented fully.

Additionally, we have initiated an email campaign to the members of the committee. We anticipate that we will have 2-3 email campaigns from now until Tuesday. If you would like to join the fight go to the following site to send the 2nd email of our coming campaign series. Campaign message 2 can be found by CLICKING HERE. Feel free to share this email with your fellow bondsmen, family, friends and employees.

The message is as follows:

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Senator {LegislatorLastName},

I am writing to ask you to oppose SB 1151. This all started during the last election cycle in Harris County where the judges refused to hold defendants accountable when they missed court or when they had a substantial criminal history. We have all heard of the $1.00 bonds and the revolving door of personal bonds being given out like candy in Harris County. Therefore, the county commissioner's court came up with the idea of blaming increasing crime on bail bondsmen. Thereafter, the Harris County Commissioners Court passed a resolution demanding that the Harris County Bail Bond Board adopt a local rule that committed illegal price fixing. Right before the primary, the bail bond board adopted the requested local rule which required bondsmen to collect 10% of the face amount of the bond for 17 specific criminal offenses. Several months later, the Harris County Sheriff asked the commissioners court for an additional $28 million in funding for what he referred to as "unsustainable" jail overcrowding. Even more recently, the Harris County jail is now so overcrowed it is not in compliance with state jail standards. What is the cause of this? The local rule that was adopted precluding bondsmen from working with families to allow them to make payment plans to bail out family members for certain offenses. The problem identified is restricted solely to Harris County. No other county has claimed a similar issue.

In the last two legislative sessions, the bail industry has been attacked for not working enough with defendants. Now these same people are claiming that the bail industry is at fault because it is working with defendants' families too much. The bail industry has not changed during this time. It has continued to do the same job that it always has done and that is it gets defendants to court with the lowest failure to appear rate of any release mechanism in use in Texas. All other release mechanisms have substantially higher rates of failure to appear; it's not even close. The failure to appear rate can have a substantial impact on backlogs since a criminal case cannot move forward without the presence of the defendant (except in limited situations).

SB 1151 seeks to take the failed Harris County model or local rule, broaden it and then apply it to the entire state of Texas. But SB 1151 is worse than the local rule because it applies to any and all criminal charges and is not limited to the 17 charges as required by the Harris County local rule. SB 1151 will result in a large unfunded mandate to counties across Texas. Defendants who are unable to pay 10% of the face amount of the bond up front wiill remain in jail. This will reduce jail capacity. This means that jails will have less capacity to deal with defendants who fail to appear for court or who breach their conditions on bonds or have substantial criminal histories. Therefore, SB 1151 will do what it has done in Harris County; it will create chaos. As we have learned over the last few years, chaos leads to de-criminalization.

According to the most recent statistics released by OCA, the private bail industry accounts for approximately 80% of releases in Texas. If we use the same model that our friends use to support arguing for more personal bond release, then at the rate of $40.00 a day per defendant, the private industry saves counties billions of dollars every year. Additionally, the private industry provides supervision over defendants and notifies courts when a defendant gets off track. Finally, if a defendant fails to appear for court, the private industry uses extensive resources to return the defendant as quickly as possible to get the defendant's case back on track. SB 1151 puts road blocks up to prevent bondsmen from doing the very important jobs that the industry has perfected over a period of 200 years.

I ask you to vote against SB 1151.

{Your name}

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If you would like to participate in this 2nd email campaign CLICK HERE.

If you have not participated in the 1st email campaign and would like to do so by CLICKING HERE.  If you want more information CLICK HERE.

You can also visit our blog by CLICKING HERE.  

Thank you so much for your willingness to assist in getting our messaging out so that we can continue to fight for our industry.

PBT