If you’re in jail awaiting trial and wondering about bail, you’re not alone. Thousands of people across America are in the same situation, including hundreds in Colorado. But can you afford cash bail? And how many people are sitting in jail because they don’t have the money to get out pretrial? According to PolitiFact, there’s no definitive answer to that question, but here are some about bail bonds to be aware of in Jefferson County, Arapah...

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Controversy and indecision regarding the future of the cash bail system is never-ending. Some state lawmakers have done away with it altogether. Some jurisdictions put their faith in electronic tethers for post-release monitoring or computer algorithms for pretrial assessment. And some have done nothing, continuing to rely on pretrial services programs, own recognizance rulings, and cash bail bonding for defendants awaiting their next court d...

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Picture this - you’re awoken from a deep sleep at 3:00 AM to repeated calls from an unknown number. Still groggy, you fumble to the “answer” button and are met with distressing news - someone you love has committed a crime and they’re waiting behind bars for your help. Whether it’s a sobbing relative or authoritative stranger on the other end, this situation is more than enough to make your barely-awake mind start reeling.

News of a loved one...

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Even with the COVID-19 pandemic, bail bonds reform laws are still an important storyline to follow. Lawlessness breeds crime, crime of the sort making its way across the country right now breeds anger, and anger breeds action which defies logic. Part of logic-defying action is how reform supporters believed, without evidence, that no-bail laws would be a cure-all for a criminal justice system desperate for reform. If you’re a bail bondsman, you...

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Bail bonding reform laws across the country were already controversial as supporters trumpeted releasing defendants with little or no cash bail, but now that we’re in the midst of a global pandemic thanks to COVID-19, no-bail laws are under even more scrutiny. Over-crowded jails and prisons have always been a flashpoint, but now that COVID-19 is spreading in the incarcerated, there’s urgency among reform supporters to accelerate prisoner releas...

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Bail reform advocates are like a broken record, playing the same old song repeatedly. The tune is predictable. The American judicial system is evil because most states allow the use of cash bail. The cash bail system – a source of income for thousands of law-abiding, hard-working Americans – means a court decides how much money a defendant must pay to be released from jail. But for states that have outlawed the practice, the jukebox has started...

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The big push nationwide for several years has been for state legislatures to pass bail bonds laws to reform the system, with a particular focus on eliminating “cash bail” for minor offenses. In Colorado, it looks like this. Defendants charged with being in a public park after hours (hmm, why would someone be in park after hours?) or walking their dog without a leash are now allowed to stroll out of court without dropping a single dime in the ti...

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