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The Alabama Bail Bond Association voiced opposition last week to a bill that would allow criminal defendants to pay partial cash payments to courts as bond.
HB42 by Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, would change bail law back to its prior state when courts could accept partial cash payments for bail.
“Essentially what this bill would do is restore the ability (for the court) to keep that money and pay the defendant’s fines and costs and restitution versus giving it to a bondsman,” England said. “And again, I just want to reiterate, the law was this way forever up until a couple of years ago.”
Victor Howard, vice president of the Alabama Bail Bond Association, said the group opposes the bill because of the “responsibility” that the bail structure provides.
Howard talked about the impacts of a zero-cash system in states like California, who reported increased rates of failure to appear and recidivism, and in an Illinois county where thousands of people failed to appear for court.
England said Howard’s comments were a “red herring” because the bill does not eliminate bail but provides a “percentage bond” system.
“For anybody to come in here and call this a zero-cash system, that’s just disingenuous,” England said. “… You could have saved us about four minutes by saying ‘I don’t like this bill because it hurts my business.’ Because that’s all you said.”
England argued that even though bondsmen are required to pay the bond if they cannot get the defendant to appear in court, in practice companies are often allowed to forfeit because they don’t have enough money in escrow to satisfy the bond payment.
The only way the court actually sees any money, England said, is through a percentage bond.
The bill could be considered as soon as Wednesday for final passage through the committee. England has previously carried the bill through the House, but it stalled in the Senate.
