Recently, I had a call from a woman who’s brother was arrested and was at the Van Nuys Jail. He had been in an accident while driving under the influence of alcohol. His bail was $30,000 and their mother agreed to bail him out. As our bail agent arrived at Van Nuys (and was illegally approached by street solicitors looking to cut him a 5% deal on a bond – also illegal, but that’s another post), he went into the jail with bond in hand and the jailer told him, “Sorry, the guy just had an O.R. approved.”

My guy tells the jailer, “Well, I have a bond, wouldn’t that be better for everyone?”

“Sorry, gotta O.R. him,” the agent was told. (Note that I recognize that the officer was doing what he’s told to do.)

You might be thinking, that’s great for the defendant and his family; they don’t have to pay. Well, not so fast. What are the facts about O.R. versus bail when it comes to appearance in court?

Cheif Walters of the Santa Ana Police Department cited it well when he met with bondsmen in October 2008. He told us:

The Santa Ana experience was that 95 to 98% of bailees returned to court to address the charges compared with only 25% of defendants who were cited out.

Walters went on to say that when someone doesn’t appear for court, a warrant is issued and police are supposed to go out looking for the individual, at additional cost to the public and taking time away from the officers’ other duties. In my experience that doesn’t happen; police departments just don’t have the resources. If, however, a defendant on bond doesn’t show up, the bondsman will find him. That’s our job as an agent for the court.

Day in and day out we deal with nice families and people who have had bad judgement and, yes, some criminals. The purpose of the bail system is to ensure appearance at court – and that’s a good thing! It lets people who are potentially innocent get out of jail and continue their lives; it also keeps down the over-crowding in the jails, making them safer and potentially less costly to society at large. Bail bondsmen additionally provide - at no cost to the public - oversight for the defendant: a set of eyes from the bondsman and the indemnitor (the person signing the bail bond contract), which provides a service that cite and release or release on Own Recognizance (“O.R.”) does not.

When a jailer has the ability to accept a bond or release on O.R., it costs nothing to help ensure the individual will return to court. Who pays? The defendant or their family… but isn’t a safer public worth it?

More on Benefits of Bail Bonds.

Bail agents also discussed regular monthly business including supporting Santa Ana Police Athletic & Activities League (SAPAAL) and Mother’s Against Drunk Driving (MADD). News from the California Bail Agents Association included a review of committees that have been formed jointly between the CBAA and Golden State Bail Agents Association (GSBAA) to work on issues facing members of both associations such as improving efficiency in jail release, the ability to obtain documentation for warrants of fugitives, and parole bonds.

OCBAA meets monthly to promote, advance, preserve and protect the business interests of retail bail agents based in Orange County, California. Greg Rynerson Bail Bonds, which services Orange County bail, is an Associate Member of the group.

It’s that time of year: we get together and give. Southern California bail bondsmen have held two fundraisers in the last week: one supporting Carmen “Nuch” Trutanich in his bid for Los Angeles City Attorney and the other supporting three worthy charities.

Bondsmen from Orange County, the Inland Empire and Riverside County came together on Wednesday night for their annual holiday event to enjoy the season and to raise funds for the Debbie Chisholm Memorial Foundation, Special Olympics and the Santa Ana Police Athletic & Activities League (PAAL), which is supported by the Santa Ana Police Department. All three organizations do an outstanding job of working with and for young people to make a difference. Each organization had a representative to talk about the work of their organization. Officer Serafin, Director of the Santa Ana PAAL is pictured at left.

Also present at the charity event was Curt Hagman, local bondsman and newly-elected Assemblymember for the 60th District.  After thanking the CBAA for a donation, Hagman said he looks forward to working closely with bondsmen state-wide and locally. He told the group that bail is about public safety and we need to do a better job of letting the public know about it.

Bail bondsmen also gathered last week at a dinner held to honor Carmen Trutanich. “Nuch” reiterated what he had told bail agents in Tahoe last month: he understands the importance of bail in the criminal process and as City Attorney, he will do what is necessary to educate his staff about the benefits of bail. Trunich said that when he was in the District Attorney’s office, it wasn’t clear to him the advantages of having a defendant out on bail from both a cost perspective and from an oversight of perspective. Pictured here, Trutanich is welcomed by Bob Narin, AIA.

The OCBAA was formed in 1996 to assist local Orange County bail bondsmen in educating the public, law enforcement and the courts how bail works. As an organization, the OC bondsmen have made in roads by contacting and visiting local police departments and the Sheriff’s Department jail. The group regularly hosts relative bail industry speakers such as Santa Ana Police Department Chief Paul Walters and the Department of Insurance investigators.

The newly incorporated bondsmen association will operate in much the same manner. The Board of Directors, including officers, remains basically the same. The Board will continue to meet monthly with quarterly member meetings. The mission of the newly incorporated organization will also will remain unchanged: To promote, advance, preserve and protect the business interests of retail bail agents based in Orange County, California.

The monthly meeting of Orange County bondsmen welcomed Santa Ana Police Chief Paul Walters, Mike Edwards, his legal counsel, and Russ Davis, Santa Ana PD Jail Administrator. Police Chief Walters began the meeting with an interesting recount of how he came to the Department nearly 20 years ago and evolution of the Santa Ana Jail.

Apparently, many years ago, the Santa Ana Police Department made the decision to release all misdemeanors on a citation (known as “O.R.” or “Cite Out” and also called a “promise to appear”) and house only felony arrestees. According to Chief Walters, the Santa Ana experience was that 95 to 98% of bailees returned to court to address the charges compared with only 25% of defendants who were cited out. In the case of non-appearance, a bench warrant is issued for the defendant which, in the case of Santa Ana at the time, put additional duties on an already stretched-too-tight police force. The results of this practice carried a clear message: bail is a stronger, safer way to release defendants.

By my understanding, this is where Police Chief Walters came in. In order to deal with the problem immediately, he leased a pre-fab 100 man jail which was paid for with drug dealer assets. When that jail was replaced with a permanent facility which opened nearly 12 years ago, Santa Ana built the jail as a business: building a jail four times larger than needed (imagine that: forward thinking!) and Santa Ana leased space to out to house Federal prisoners. This practice continues today. The Santa Ana Police Department went even further: they hired civilian correctional employees in order to keep their police officers on the street.

Fast forward to today: Russ Davis reviewed for bondsmen how the department handles, processes and houses those arrested by the Santa Ana Police Department. He told bondsmen that his department views the police officers as his customers: officers need to be on the street, not in the jail. He said Santa Ana officers are back out on the street in an average of 10 minutes through a process known as “Fast Booking”.

From that point, defendants are booked by corrections employees and kept at the Santa Ana jail an average of 4 – 6 hours, before being transferred by underground tunnel to the Orange County Jail directly accross the street. This time-frame is longer or shorter based on return of finger prints for positive identification.

In Q&A, Cheif Walters was asked to comment on bondsmen’s perception that there are people on Santa Ana streets near the Orange County jail who are illegally negotiating bail bonds. The Cheif offered to have an Santa Ana officer speak directly with bondsmen to understand and resolve the issue.

Bondsmen also asked about the ability to bail arrestees directly from Santa Ana rather than waiting for transfer to the County jail as has been the experience. Mr. Davis indicated that it is possible to bail defendants directly from Santa Ana and that his department would work with bondsmen to identify barriers to that process.

Concluding the meeting, the Cheif offered to all, “I’ll leave you my card; it’s good for a free night’s stay.” Open to hear bondsmen’s concerns, genuinely interested in the public good, fiscally aware and a good sense of humor.