The crux of the argument, reports Fox 5 San Diego, lies in the 27,000+ illegal immigrant inmates being detained in California prisons.  Jones believes a more cost-effective solution would be to construct facilities in Mexico and house them there, he said.

According to a recent report by the Public Policy Institute of California, the state’s prisons are operating at 175% of the inmate capacity they were designed to hold.  That overcrowding, say law enforcement officials, has been a driving force behind a recent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court which requires California to release in excess of 30,000 non-violent low-level inmates.

The next steps, said the assemblyman, is to find out if the plan is plausible and if so, whether if it would be permitted under state law.

Let me back up: When people hear that I’m a bail bondsman, they always seem to think, “you must have a lot of good stories.” Truth be told, we don’t. Mostly, we bail out regular people. Day in and day out, bail is like most other jobs – except, of course, that you do it 24 x 7 x 365.

Days like yesterday, where we get an interesting case, are pretty rare. Got a call this for a bail bond out of Los Colinas Jail, San Diego’s womens jail on an out of state warrant on a woman – pretty regular so far.

Now, for the rest of the story… Husband put together a birthday cruise for wife and their two small children – nice. They get to the ship (where, of course, the couple’s passport’s are scanned upon entry). They settle in, have a nice meal while waiting for the ship to set sail. Next thing you know, there’s a knock at the door. The Border Patrol is standing there asking questions, puts the wife in handcuffs and she’s headed to jail. Bummer of a vacation buster!

Unfortunately for the family, they thought an attorney had taken care of the wife’s situation. After a call to us to arrange bail, the man and the two children returned home. We bailed the wife out and she was able to make a flight home late in the day.

Moral of the story: security checks while traveling net more than terrorists. So, if you have an outstanding warrant, be prepared to head back home. Even better, arrange with a bondsman to get it taken care of before you set sail.

Santee also filed a lawsuit last year against the county involving a $100 million state grant to expand the Las Colinas jail, which it lost. Santee currently is appealing this lawsuit. Santee sights differences in the city since Las Colinas was first built as well as environmental impact as reasons for County Supervisors to look elsewhere for a new women’s jail.  just doesn’t want a jail or even a new jail in their area. They might have some help from Ryan Companies US who is also filing a lawsuit against the jail project. Ryan Companies has a 1.9 million square foot project going on in Santee and fears loss of property value if the Las Colinas jail is expanded.

Last year, we had a call late in the evening on December 23rd from a woman in Arizona who wanted to arrange bail for her sister who had been arrested in San Diego and was incarcerated at the Las Colinas Women’s Jail. She wanted her sister bailed out quickly, and we understood her urgency. Getting a person out of jail as fast as possible is one of the top concerns that our clients have.

However, this client had an added complication: the woman in jail had a plane ticket for the afternoon of the 24th and plans to visit her ailing mother for Christmas. Our client wanted to arrange bail right away so that her sister could make it to the airport in time. This was a problem, because the jail system works on its own schedule.

We work hard to get our clients’ bail processed as quickly as possible, but we always need to work within the system. Our client in this case was impatient with the process. She thought the police should just go ahead and release her sister because the case was without merit.

As bondsmen, we process the paperwork and file the bond (known as “posting bail”) very quickly. From that point, it’s up to the jail. Unfortunately for our clients, jail isn’t a hotel where you call down for a bellman and sign for your charges as you walk out the front door. If it’s a small jail and they aren’t busy (it’s not lunch time, not change of shift and they aren’t dealing with another arrestee), a defendant may be out in minutes. However, larger busier jails take hours to release an inmate. Las Colinas serves as the women’s jail for all of San Diego County and as such is quite busy.

The sister in Arizona called many times that day and went through a range of emotions from hope to anger to disappointment and likely other emotions she didn’t share with me. We expect this from clients. Needing a bail bond can be a very emotional process – add to that the emotion of the season.

This was an extreme example, but many clients have anxieties about the bail bond process. After all, most people have never had any contact with the criminal justice system. They don’t really understand the arrest and booking process or have any idea how long it takes to bail someone out of jail.

We always carefully explain how the bail bond process works so that our clients know what’s happening at all times. But it’s important to understand that courts and jails work on their own timetable. They don’t care that someone thinks the charges are bogus or that it’s Christmas, or that someone has a plane to catch. Fortunately, the woman got out of jail on the 24th, but unfortunately, not in time to make her plane to Arizona.

Photocredit: © Jeffrey Collingwood – Fotolia.com