In the final days of his governorship Jerry Brown of California signed into law a bill that went by the innocuous title of “SB10”. That is, Senate Bill 10. When it first came before the California legislature SB10 was hailed as the answer to everything that ails the American bail system. In one fell swoop unjust incarcerations would be eliminated, poverty would be decriminalized, those fine upstanding B&E guys who work Potrero Hill in San Franc...

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Among the 80 or so democrats who have announced they’re running for president is California Senator Kamala Harris. Sen. Harris has made a lot of noise since announcing her candidacy about her deep seeded desire to do away with what she refers to as the “evil cash bail system”. As proof she touts her plan (which went nowhere) to offer states $10 million in federal grant money if they would do away with cash bail. But while she’s apparently learn...

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Few people would argue with the notion that the bail system in America is flawed and that some common sense reforms are long overdue. However, in recent years as momentum to develop and institute those reforms has gathered steam a more extreme group has effectively hijacked the reform movement.

To the leaders of this group nothing short of the total elimination of cash bail and the bail bonds system will do. The problem is, the proponents of...

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At Tayler Made we handle lots of questions related to bail bonds from those who have been arrested or those hoping to bail them out. One of the questions that comes up most often is whether or not a person can be bailed out on the weekend. Most average folks don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it, but the Friday to Sunday period is actually when they are most likely to find themselves behind bars.

Why is That?

A large percentage of we...

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You won’t find many people, including the bondsman, who would argue that the current bail system is perfect. The desire to improve the system, however, sometimes generates some pretty extreme proposals, including the idea of ending cash bail altogether. But because such notions are often vaguely defined and fail to provide practical alternatives to bail they usually fall flat on their face.

Except in California, where a lack of fair, cost-ef...

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The Founding Fathers incorporated many common law principles, traditions and concepts into the legal structure of the new nation. So it was no real surprise that bail - which had been a common law staple for nearly a thousand years - wound up being included in the Bill of Rights where the 8th Amendment states unequivocally that “Excessive bail shall not be required…” Today, there is a robust debate underway over just what constitutes “excessive...

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While the 8th Amendment to the Constitution protects the accused against “excessive” bail it doesn’t really go any further than that. There are no other mentions of bail in the Constitution, no explicit right to bail spelled out or guidelines for the various states to follow. Just a quick mention that “Excessive bail shall not be required…” That’s it. As a result, the nature of bail is different as you move from state to state. Some states have...

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