Post-Conviction Bonds a Promising Solution to Prison Overcrowding

• February 24, 2010
• by Collateral Staff
• Business Tips
• In the News

Prison overcrowding has become an ever-evolving dilemma for many states, where each new solution creates a new assortment of problems. The end result has been prisons operating grossly over capacity, such as in California, where the state's 33 prisons were designed to hold 84,000 inmates but are packed with 158,000. States are being forced to release prisoners early and turn away new inmates, which is giving criminals the opportunity to become repeat offenders without much consequence. With current solutions proving largely ineffective, bail agents and others are backing a relatively new answer that uses financial collateral as incentive for convicted criminals to behave: the conditional post-conviction release bond.

With prison overcrowding sparking debates across the country, AboutBail.com decided to take a closer look at the past, present and future of the post-conviction bond.

History of the conditional post-conviction release bond
Many people point to the late 1980s and '90s as the point where prison overcrowding began to accelerate faster than states could keep up. During those times, states responded to rising crime rates by instituting tougher sentences, which reduced crime rates but sent jail populations soaring. Dennis Bartlett, Executive Director of the American Bail Coalition, discussed the vicious cycle that has continued ever since the crackdown.

"It solved local crime problems but jammed prisons full of people. Now you have people getting out and then re-offending and going back in," Bartlett said.

Bartlett, also a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), began working with ALEC and other groups on the Conditional Post-conviction Release Bond Act as another method of prison population reduction. Post-conviction bonds are based on the idea that after convictions, courts can select nonviolent offenders who meet strict criteria and allow them to post bond with private bail agencies. Benefits of post-conviction bonds include there being no cost to taxpayers, that criminals have financial incentive to appear in court and that prison populations are reduced so violent offenders can serve full sentences.

ALEC and other organizations support performance bonds, where bail agencies monitor criminals for drug testing, maintenance of employment, recovery program involvement and other conditions. But some bail agents are opposed to performance bonds because they require being with clients almost full-time. A more popular alternative is appearance bonds, where bail agents are responsible for ensuring that the person appears at court on time. Either way, criminals and their families are subject to a heavy financial loss if the person violates terms of the bond.

Prison overcrowding spreading from coast to coast
California's struggle with its bloated prison system is representative of the plight of states across the country. In February 2010, a panel of three federal judges issued a tentative ruling that the state must quickly reduce its prison population by more than 57,000 inmates. California is examining measures such as limiting new admissions and giving prisoners shorter sentences for good behavior and rehabilitation efforts. Bartlett said California's "emergency release" program has created an environment where people no longer fear the consequences of committing crimes.

"People put on emergency release are more likely to commit crimes. They know that if you commit certain crimes in California, they're just going to process you and walk you out the door two hours later," Bartlett said.

With so many criminals slipping away from the court system, many are calling for the increased accountability that accompanies post-conviction bonds. Bartlett pointed out that the post-conviction bond could even be used to keep people from entering the prison system at all. The judge would have the discretion to issue a sentence, decide whether the person is eligible for post-conviction bond and then present that option to the convicted person. Bartlett said it's a win-win situation for the state because the prisons have one less inmate, and the state can collect money from the bail bondsman if the person skips a court hearing or disappears.

Post-conviction bond not immune to controversy
Several groups, including prosecutors associations and district attorneys associations, have raised objections to post-conviction bonds. Their arguments vary, but many center on the idea that requiring convicted persons to post bond is unfair to indigents. Another source of resistance has been probation workers who believe post-conviction bonds might leave them without jobs. Bartlett said that probation workers in Mississippi have widely accepted post-conviction bonds after realizing that help from the private sector would make their jobs easier by lessening their heavy workloads.
Still others claim that post-conviction bonds are a self-serving measure by the bail industry because bail companies will profit financially. To this, Bartlett said he wonders if that really even matters as long as post-conviction bonds help to reduce prison overcrowding.

"I would make the argument, 'So what if they're making money off of it?'" Bartlett said. "You hire food service and have competitors bid on it. That provider's not going to do it for free. You just want to get the one who does it the way you want."

The current state of the post-conviction bond
Three years have passed since Mississippi became the first state to adopt the Conditional Post-conviction Release Bond Act in 2007. Since then, Michigan passed a version of the bill in 2009. According to Gene Newman, Secretary of the Professional Bail Agents of the United States, North Carolina, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, California and other states are in various stages of exploring similar initiatives.

Because the post-conviction bond program has only recently been implemented in Mississippi, there isn't a wealth of data available. But according to Bartlett, preliminary results are very promising. About 1,000 inmates have been released in Mississippi, and the rate of the criminals showing up to court has been about 97 percent. Financially, Bartlett pointed out that the jails are saving around $24,000 to $36,000 per inmate for every year they aren't in jail, without factoring in medical costs and other expenses.

Bartlett said he doesn't know what the future holds for post-conviction bonds in the United States, but he thinks with a little more publicity and some positive data collected over the next few years, post-conviction bonds could become the answer to prison overcrowding that America desperately needs.