Keep Bailing

The Los Angeles Police Department’s new Metropolitan Detention Center is set to replace the failing 60 year old Parker Center Jail, but the budget crisis continues to prevent the new jail from opening.

Greg Rynerson Bail Bonds continues with our “Inside the Jail” series this week: Inside the New LAPD Metro Center Jail. Here you will learn:

• The costs and reasons for a new jail.
• Problems at the current Parker Center jail.
• The jail layout and purposes.
• Staffing considerations.
• The benefits of the new jail and the down side.

The $74 million jail is state-of-the-art, but the staffing needs and the city hiring moratorium keep the bars shut. Will Los Angeles make an exception and allow hiring of new jail staff? Or, will there be a major crisis at Parker Center?

If there’s a jail you’d like to “go inside,” let us know and we’ll add it to our series.

One inmate spoke his mind so perfectly, “How do I find a way to go beyond these bars?” He describes that being is jail is a difficult enviornment in which to exist; with the constant clanking of jail cell doors being shut, inmates shouting and loud instructions coming through the intercom system.

Being locked in a jail cell can’t be easy. But a program initiated at Los Angeles County Men’s Central Jail , may offer many inmates a much needed ’metaphysical outlet’ by way of meditation classes, according to the Los Angeles Times.

A Buddhist Chaplain has been helping the inmates see a calmer, lighter sense of being through a popular weekly meditiation course being offered. So successful, it’s now Read more »

LOS ANGELES (03/15/10) – “Beware the Ides of March!” If you’re not Roman, you know what to beware of… break out your old, dusty green T-shirts, “Kiss Me I’m Irish” buttons, Shamrock earrings and good luck green socks, because St. Patrick’s Day is on it’s way - Wednesday, March 17th.

But don’t let this mid-week holiday fool you for one minute. State wide law enforcement will be in place. So if you’re caught driving under the influence of too many green beers, well, you’ll going to be arrested and charged with DUI. You’ll also be fined, lose your driving freedom and spend the night in jail. Fun, huh?

Now, I apologize for putting a damper on one of the years funnest holidays, but I want to make sure we all make it home safely – after our green day celebrations.

There will be several events in Los Angeles. Like the St. Patrick’s Day parade, the LA County Irish Fair, the Orange County Marketplace St. Patrick’s Day Festival, and the St. Patty’s Fest in Hollywood. Then again, there’s the many cool Irish pubs and Taverns peppered about town. A great time to be had by all!

But be mindful. Public drinking laws may also be enforced on the street. Don’t get caught with a brew in hand at a public parade. Most city ordinances prohibit folks from possessing open containers in public places.

During the week of St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, the Los Angeles Police Department will be conducting sobriety checkpoints around the city in an effort to keep the streets of L.A. safe. Below are some of the checkpoints Read more »

In an OpEd piece written by San Francisco Police Department Chief George Gascon, Gascon outlined how the SFPD is taking a new approach to a very old idea and it’s meeting with great success: Community Policing.  By dividing the city up into small-town style beats, police are able to better interact with members of their community and problem solve crimes both committed and feared.   This strategy is working so well, the SFPD has reorganized their entire department to accommodate it.

“Once the community feels like they have a stake in what’s going on, they feel empowered and willing to help.”  Says Police Chief George Gascon.  “Community policing is becoming the way we conduct business every day. Our efforts are being focused on the shared responsibility of working with our diverse communities to nurture our relationships and create effective problem-solving models to enhance public safety.”

But does the current policing model stack up to the department’s claims?  Before Read more »

Ah… the holidays.  A joyous time for overindulging in every sort of way.  Evidently, in Los Angeles, more than 1,000 people must have partied too much, because this is the staggering number of arrests made for driving under the influence during a week long crackdown campaign by the CHP that lasted right on through to Christmas Day. This law enforcement coalition, known as AVOID, has announced that no less than 1,030 DUI arrests were made as compared to 969 during the same period last year.

This year, the California Highway Patrol was especially busy on Read more »

In more celebrity arrest news, Mel Gibson’s conviction for drunk driving was finally expunged this week.  He has met the requirements of his probation after his 2006 drunk driving arrest.

However, in an attempt to uncover what some are saying was a media leak from the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, authorities have discovered two calls were made to Harvey Levin of TMZ the exact day of Gibson’s arrest. 

One of the arresting Sheriff Deputies, James Mee stated he did nothing wrong and declined to comment any further. But phone records Read more »

As last year, California bail agents met at Lake Tahoe for the 2009 Annual Convention of the California Bail Agents (CBAA). Day one was Monday and included the usual State of the Association and PBUS National Updates.

Pretrial Release

Continuing Education Credit was offered to bondsmen who attended all required sessions, the first of which was an attorney presentation regarding Pre Trial Release presented by Ash Pirayou of Rutan & Tucker and a panel on Credit Card Bail. Pirayou reviewed current happenings in Pretrial Release (commonly known as Release on Own Recognizance or “OR“) in Santa Clara County. Pirayou said that Santa Clara County jailsare attempting to use pretrial release to relieve jail overcrowding and save money, but the bottom line numbers show a significantly different picture. He called on bail agents to help paint an accurate public picture.

Orange County Sheriff Candidate

Bondsmen were also addressed by Bill Hunt, candidate for Orange County Sheriff.  Hunt, who spent 22 years in the Orange County Read more »

In the first address to Los Angeles bail bondsmen since his election to City Attorney, Carmen “Nuch” Trutanich told a group assembled Sunday evening that the office he inherrited was “broken“. He added, “I was elected to clean up the office and I will.”

Trutanich gave only a brief prelude to what bondsmen would hear more about in the days to come at the Annual Meeting of the California Bail Agents Association (CBAA): “We are arresting bail agents for capping,” Trutanich told us.

Interestingly, he gave no real details to something of great importance to the California bail industry. Unethical bail agents operating illegally is a serious problem to those of us who run a clean business. I, for one, was very interested in the details.

He went on to Read more »

In what will surely be known as a ground-breaking decision for California, Governor Arnold Schwarzeneggar has signed a bill that will test requiring drivers previously convicted of a DUI to install an ‘ignition interlock device’ in their cars. When a person blows into this in-car alcohol breath screening device, it will block the vehicles capacity to start should alcohol be detected on their breath.

Assemblyman Mike Feuer, a Democrat from Los Angeles wrote the bill which will expire in 2016.

The bill requires Read more »