The Bail Post
What do we know about criminal justice reforms or bail reform? How do we evaluate whether reforms are helping or making the situation worse? How can we take politics out of criminal justice and focus on public safety? The Bail Post seeks to be a place where legislators and the public can educate themselves on a host of criminal justice/bail reform issues. With various attempts at criminal justice reform from New York to Texas to California, many people are confused as to what is working and what is not. With the passage of time, more and more data is coming to light over what successful reform looks like and what reforms have been found to not be working. The rise in violent crime across the country has been startling and law makers and the public alike are desperate to find legislation that is effective. Some might ask whether some of the reforms making the situation worse? The Bail Post is an on-going discussion that seeks to cut to the core to provide education on the various issues raised and to highlight what successful criminal justice reform looks like and what measures have been disastrous. Join us and educate yourself about the best practices that jurisdictions must implement to keep their communities safe, while ensuring fairness to defendants. As a someone said recently "Public safety is the foundation of a society. Without public safety we do not have a society."
If you would like to listen other episodes of The Bail Post you can find a subject matter index of the different episodes at- https://pbtx.blogspot.com/p/subject-index-to-bail-post-podcasts.html.
The host is Ken W. Good; an attorney in Tyler, Texas who has been licensed for over 30 years. He has argued cases before the Supreme Court of Texas and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Mr. Good has written a book on bail called "Goods On Bail." He has also has had numerous papers published on Criminal Justice Reform issues. Mr. Good is a board member of PBT and serves on the legislative committee. Mr. Good is married and has two daughters.
The Bail Post
Episode No. 20- "Let's Decriminalize Crime And Call It Bail Reform"- The California Model With Guest Bill Armstrong
California has been the epicenter of the Criminal Justice Reform/Bail Reform movement. Our guest is Bill Armstrong who is the President of the California Bail Agents Association. California has seen several attempts to reform and get rid of the bail industry. These changes can be traced back to when the State changed many felony offenses and made them misdemeanor offenses and then prosecutors in several urban areas decided that they would no longer prosecute these crimes. This proposition and decisions of prosecutors started the slide of the state of California into chaos. Now businesses are closing because either they cannot withstand wholesale shoplifting to the tune of $25,000.00 a day or the employers cannot provide a safe place for their employees to work.
Since then California's legislature has attempted to go even further. But the votes has refused to go along. California attempted to adopt the New Jersey Plan, but voters said no. But the legislature's attempts to initiate bail reform has continued.
As we continue to shine a light on bail reform/criminal justice reform failures, it is becoming more and more clear that reform is not the goal, but decriminalization is. Voters would never support it so reformers have sold it as "reform."
California is starting to see the light. Help us spread the word to the rest of the country.
Bill Armstrong is a third generation bondsman. Bill's family has been continually writing bail in LA County for over 90 years dating back to Bill's grandfather.