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...

In today's digital landscape, identifying the truth about topics like bail reform and cashless bail can be challenging due to widespread disinformation, misinformation, and propaganda. In a recent article in AIA Surety's Insight newsletter their Vice President of Communications, Eric Granof, discusses how much of the information consumers digest comes from internet searches, particularly Google.  Someone asks a question and Google searches the web for the answer and aggregates the best results based on its algorithm.  The problem with this is that Google is not an expert on everything like people expect.  It is simply feeding up what its algorithm believes is the best answer rather than objective truth. As a result, users searching for the truth on any topic related to bail reform, cashless bail or bail bonds will encounter a curated collection of the viewpoints selected by algorithmic preferences, as opposed to what is the truth. How Activist Groups Influence Search Resu...

In the heated national debate over bail reform and cashless bail, one critical perspective is often overlooked: the real families left scrambling when a working parent is arrested for a minor offense. In a recent article, President of the Mississippi Bail Agents Association, Mike Morrison writes about the misrepresented and misunderstood role that bail bond agents play in ensuring families are kept together during the criminal justice process.  Across Mississippi and the rest of the country, arrests frequently happen late at night or on weekends—DUI, traffic violations, or other non-violent charges that do not involve hardened criminals. Without easy access to an effective pretrial release mechanism like a surety bail bond, the accused has the potential to remain in jail longer than necessary.  Cashless Bail Creates Delays and Keeps Families Apart This delayed and unnecessary incarceration is often overlooked and misunderstood. Many bail reform policies that have been supporte...

On August 22, 2025, Iryna Zarutska was killed at the East/West Boulevard station on the Lynx Blue Line, in Charlotte, North Carolina. Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee who had fled her country because of the Russian invasion, was stabbed from behind three times while seated on the train.  She did everything right.  She and her family immigrated to the United States legally.  They had a sponsor.  She was attending college and was working at a pizza shop.  At the time of the stabbing she was traveling home after work. The entire event was captured on video.  Initially, the video was not seen by the public.  Then everything changed when the mayor of Charlotte thanked the press for not distributing the video.  Then the video was everywhere.   In response to this terrible event, the North Carolina legislature passed Iryna's Law.  It was signed by the Democrat Governor. Join us on this episode of The Bail Post as we discuss the events ...

  As we begin Season 5 of the Bail Post, we are talking about the importance of engaging in public relations in the Criminal Justice System.  One of the things that we have learned over the years is that the activists will never admit that they are wrong or that they are doing more harm than good.  Also, they have learned how to inundate google with pseudo studies that are really nothing more than dressed up press releases from these same groups that many times actually contradict what the actual science says should be the proper course of action.  Therefore, if we are not telling the positive stories of the bail industry and the Criminal Justice System, then these stories will not be told.  If we are not highlighting what the actual science says then many times no one will.   Our guests on today's episode of The Bail Post is our PR Team- Cara Downs and Elliott Chang who are Media Vista PR.  If you would like more information about Cara and Elliott con...

 In 2020, there were protests in Seattle, Washington following the death of George Floyd.  For a period of 24 days, an area that became known as the Capitol Hill Occupation Protest (CHOP) was treated as an autonomous zone where the police did not respond to calls.  As a result, the CHOP zone became an example of what happens when police stop policing.  Dr. Eric Piza and Dr. Nathan T. Connealy largely used data from the City of Seattle Open Data portal, analyzing data from more than one year prior to CHOP with two microsynth models to understand average and seasonal crime trends.  Dr. Piza and Dr. Connealy looked at the impact of crime in three areas:  (1) the CHOP zone; (2) the two block radius around the CHOP zone; and (3) the precinct at large. The results showed a significant increase in crime within the CHOP zone, the encompassing two-block area, and the overall East precinct service area during the occupation period.   The study suggests that call...