The Professional Bondsmen of Texas- Blog

  New Hampsire- Gov. Kelly Ayotte and leaders from across the state are pushing for a bail reform bill that lawmakers are voting on Thursday. According to the governor, the bill will make changes to the 2018 bail law that has been criticized for  letting too many violent and re-offending criminals back on the streets. “This has brought everyone together, unfortunately, because we have seen and I've heard so much about the issues we've had with bail creating a revolving door that is putting our law enforcement in danger, that is putting average citizens  who are just trying to live their lives in this amazing state in danger,” Ayotte said. To see more CLICK HERE .

New York recently passed the third or fourth round of roll backs of the bail reform it passed at the start of the pandemic.  On this Episode of The Bail Post we learn all about the bail reforms that New York passed and the various roll backs passed since.  Our guest is Michelle Esquenazi who is the President of The National Association of Bail Agents. Video version of Podcast- To view on Youtube- CLICK HERE . Audio only- 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-    ...

  The State Commission on Judicial Conduct has recommended Judge Franklin Bynum be suspended over allegations that consist of him being biased against prosecutors and easy on defendants. “I can’t remember the last time a judge has been suspended in Harris County based on something less than an allegation of criminal wrongdoing,” said KPRC 2 legal analyst Brian Wice. Bynum presides over Harris County Criminal Court at Law 8 and has been on the bench since Jan. of 2019. Ray Hunt, the Executive Director of Houston of the Houston Police Officers Union, told KPRC he filed a complaint against Bynum last year. “He’s an admitted socialist, he’s anti-police, he’s anti-government, he’s anti-victim and he’s definitely pro-suspect,” Hunt said. The commission charged Bynum with bias against the state, failure to comply and reasonable doubt regarding judicial impartiality. “These allegations aren’t criminal,” Wice said. “These allegations are more in line with a civil lawsuit that the commission...

  Even after lawmakers in Albany approved another rollback of the 2019 bail reform law that eliminated pretrial detention in the vast majority of cases, the issue remains an incredibly contentious one. On Friday, John Jay College of Criminal Justice hosted a conference featuring lawmakers, criminal justice advocates, legal experts and journalists to delve into that ongoing debate that will surely continue well past the end of the 2022 legislative session.  The bail law most recently changed as part of this year’s state budget, coming as a last minute push from Gov. Kathy Hochul that upended the negotiations up to that point. The amendments approved in April made more gun crimes eligible for bail and gave judges greater discretion to consider factors other than flight risk when determining bail or pretrial detention. Democrats in the state Legislature resisted greater changes, like adding a so-called dangerousness clause that would have allowed judges to weigh the potential dan...

  An NYPD bigwig blamed bail reform for the number of guns flooding the Big Apple’s streets and worried about the proliferation of untraceable “ghost guns” in a radio interview that aired Sunday. “There has not been a time in modern history where this many people have been walking around with guns not fearful of the consequences,” Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller told host John Catsimatidis on his WABC 770 AM radio show. Miller pointed to an incident just last week to illustrate his point. An NYPD cop, Officer Dennis Vargas, of the Bronx Borough public safety team, was shot in the arm in an exchange of gunfire with a man who had been freed ahead of a sentencing date connected to a past gun bust. The suspect, Rameek Smith, was killed in the Tuesday shootout. “So you see the triangle of quality of life crimes lead to people involved in other violations of the law, including violent crimes,” Miller said. City and police officials have made shootings...

  Changes are coming to New York’s controversial bail reform laws. The changes come in the state budget. Republicans say it’s not enough and progressives say it went too far, but a recently released poll of voters showed the state needed to do something. “In 2019, there was a major shake-up in New York state politics because the Democrats came to control the Senate,” SUNY Plattsburgh Political Science Professor Harvey Schantz said. The Democrats were also the majority in the Assembly and held the governor’s seat with then-governor Andrew Cuomo. “Elimination of cash bail is something the progressive Democrats wanted and it was put into law,” Schantz said. The New York Legislature passed bail reform in 2019 which eliminated cash bail and the judge’s discretion of setting bail to most misdemeanor and nonviolent crimes. The state says this is to keep people out of jail as they wait for their day in court. “As soon as that passed, law and order and the rise in crime became a political c...

  Police unions and Mayor Eric Adams ripped into Gov. Kathy Hochul’s planned fixes to New York’s controversial bail reform law through the negotiated state budget, saying they don’t go far enough and amount to “window dressing” “Although I commend them on steps they took towards dealing with public safety — something that people said was impossible for us to get done — but clearly, there’s more to be done” to clean up soaring crime in the Big Apple, Hizzoner said on Fox 5’s “Good Day New York” ahead of his 100th day in office. Big Apple police union leaders had more pointed critiques of the Albany criminal justice changes agreed to in the budget process announced by Hochul on Thursday. “New Yorkers should pay close attention to the words Gov. Hochul and the legislative leaders are using. Their priority is to make New Yorkers ‘feel safer,’ not to provide real public safety,” Police Benevolent Association president Pat Lynch said in a statement Friday. “Their proposed changes are pol...

  New York state lawmakers are closing in on an agreement that could expand the circumstances in which cash bail would be required to include charges like gun trafficking as well as alleged repeat offenses, a top Democrat in the state Senate on Tuesday said.  The development comes as lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul are close to putting the finishing touches on a broader state budget agreement, which had been expected to pass on Friday.  Democratic lawmakers who control both chambers of the state Legislature, as well as Gov. Kathy Hochul, have been under pressure to make changes to the 2019 bail law that largely ended cash bail requirements for many criminal charges. Advocates for the measure had contended the law was meant to keep low-income defendants out of jail for legnthy periods of time while awaiting trial.  But a national rise in violent crime has led to renewed concerns over public safety among voters in New York and spurred calls for changes ahead of the com...

  Lawmakers passed HB 1476 with a vote of 199-134 on Tuesday. The bill would mandate the pretrial detention of anyone arrested who has already been released on personal recognizance, or no cash, bail. It would mandate the pretrial detention of any individual charged with a felony or Class A misdemeanor if they are on release for any other offense at the time of arrest. It would also require judges to order the pretrial detention of any individual charged with a third Class B misdemeanor offense. Those convicted of Class B misdemeanors are most often fined, and they do not face jail time. Under the current law, judges and bail commissioners can hold a person they determine is dangerous without bail. Otherwise, they are supposed to consider what a person could reasonably afford before setting bail. Rep. Linda Harriott-Gathright says the changes proposed in this bill would disproportionately harm Black people. “Because Black people are disproportionately arrested, they will also be di...

  Manchester police and local lawmakers won a big victory Wednesday as a House committee endorsed a bipartisan bill to deny a quick and easy pre-trial release to anyone who is arrested for a serious offense while already out on bail. The amended bill states that anyone out on bail who is arrested for a crime that carries jail time must see a judge before they can be released. Gov. Chris Sununu has supported the call for more bail reform from Manchester Police Chief Allen Aldenberg because too many offenders have gotten out on no-cash bail and gone on to reoffend. "I think a judge will do a better job in getting them the appropriate bail or help they need; clearly the system is failing them," said Rep. Ross Berry (R-Manchester), chief sponsor of the bill (HB 1476). Berry agreed to offer an amendment with several changes to limit the maximum amount of time such an offender may be detained before that hearing to 36 hours. The bill also requires someone to go before a judge for a...