On November 3rd, George Gascon was elected District Attorney for Los Angeles County. During the campaign leading up to the vote, Gascon stated one of his goals as District Attorney would be to "implement programs to end mass incarceration by working to end money bail”. That sounds very noble and all, but there’s only one problem: the District Attorney is not elected to make or change laws, but to prosecute those who violate them.

During the...

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The debate about ending the U.S. cash bail system has been going on for years and will rage for the foreseeable future. If you’re a bondsman in Colorado, we are sure you follow what is happening with cash bail legislation in other states (New York, California, New Jersey), but we would like to take a step back for any potential new clients and review information that could be helpful if someone runs afoul of the law and needs our assistance.

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One of the questions we get from family, friends, and complete strangers is "When should I call a bondsman." You might think reflexively, "Whenever you need to get out of jail!" But it is not that simple. When someone has been arrested, emotions run high and it is difficult to make the right choice. Everyone, of course, has the right to an attorney and to make a phone call from jail, but who do you call and why?

When to Call a Bondsman?

Did...

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You can change the judicial system, reform police departments, work to abolish the cash bail system, endanger the lifeblood for thousands of people employed in the bail bonds industry, but one thing remains constant – people commit crimes. Even those who’ve been given second chances (Tiffany Harris, anyone?) sometimes return to a life on the other side of the law.

Does the current cash bail system – the norm in most states across America – ne...

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The reason that U.S. jails, including in Jefferson County, Arapahoe County, and Denver County, are overcrowded is well-documented and controversial. Some point to a lack of new facilities, surges in crime, bureaucratic red tape, unfair criminal penalties, the burden of excessive bail on the poor, and so forth. All of this has led to wholesale revisions in America’s cash bail system, causing rifts between those who support eliminating it compl...

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More and more people across the country are learning the hard way that if you remove accountability from the criminal justice system by ending bail bonds things will go off the rails. Without the possibility of losing bail money, and secure in the knowledge that they will be quickly released after being arrested, criminals will do what criminals do: commit crimes.

California was set to eliminate cash bail in 2018 when outgoing governor Jerry...

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Ask any of the highly-paid professional anti-bail lobbyists lurking in the halls of the Colorado state house what’s wrong with the current cash bail bonds system and you will invariably get the answer that it’s a racist system that punishes minorities. Irony of ironies then, that a July study conducted by the University of Northern Colorado (UNC) discovered that the risk assessment algorithm promoted by anti-bail zealots and used by a number...

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