Keep Bailing

PBUS, Professional Bail Agents of the United States, is scheduled to hold it’s annual Winter conference February 21-24 in Las Vegas, NV at the Flamingo Hotel.

Last month, the PBUS held a small gathering in San Antonio to propose speakers for the upcoming conference and since then, have confirmed the following keynote guest speakers. Beth and Duane Chapman, from one of A&E’s top series, “Dog the Bounty Hunter” are scheduled to do several things at the upcoming PBUS. Beth Chapman will be speaking about her opinion of the bail industry and its outlook for the future. The following day, both Duane and Beth will be speaking on behalf of their hit series.

Additionally, PBUS will be holding a raffle for new members and their sponsors. Whoever brings a new colleague to PBUS will be automatically entered to win a lunch date with Duane and Beth Chapman.

Also scheduled to speak this year is “America’s Toughest Sheriff,” Joe Arpaio. Coming from Arizona, Sheriff Arpaio is a strict law-and-order representative that, in his years of service, has declared war on illegal immigration, forced inmates to wear pink and sleep in tents, and he has emphasized the punishment element of incarceration.  Sheriff Arpaio is quoted as saying [to inmates] “If you don’t like it here, don’t come back!”

Sheriff Arpaio is a controversial speaker and will be sharing his thoughts about the bail industry as well as the criminal justice system.

This year’s PBUS should be an exciting one with a lot of great information floating around as well as a great place for networking and learning more about this industry.

The Professional Bail Agents of the United States (PBUS) association’s annual midyear meeting is approaching. This four day event will be held at the Millennium Park Hotel in Chicago July 21- 24. This will be their last meeting before they celebrate the 30th year anniversary in February, 2011. Bail professionals from all over the US meet here and are given the opportunity to network, attend and participate in lectures as well as attend association meetings.

According to PBUS President, Linda Braswell, there was some controversy on the location of the event. Apparently there were some PBUS members that were not in favor of this location because Illinois happens to be a no-bail state. Braswell stated that having the meeting in Chicago would allow them an opportunity to get them to support the bail system.

Braswell said, “They’re (Illinois) a 10-percent state, but Read more »

All across America, states are running out of ways to combat prison overcrowding. Prisons are like dams that threaten to break, with an inmate overflow that will be impossible to contain. Many people feel the last two decades of the 20th century were the point at which prison overcrowding began to accelerate faster than states could keep up.

During those times, states tried to fight rising crime rates by meting out stiffer sentences. This tactic did reduce criminal activity, but it also sent jail populations skyrocketing . Recent early release programs that were intended to combat the financially devastating inmate-influx have been sharply criticized by police and the public.

In California, where the state’s 33 prisons are designed to hold 85,000 inmates, these detention centers are packed to the gills with 160,000 men and women — almost double the amount! But at last, there may be a solution to this situation, born from what some might see as an unlikely source: 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 »

One of the premiere bail bond conferences of the year is just around the corner: 2009 PBUS Winter Conference & Membership Meeting. The Professional Bail Agents of the US meets annually, bringing together bondsmen from California to Maine, Washington to Florida, and all points in between.

This year’s conference is being held February 15 through 19 at the Las Vegas Flamingo. Read more »