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. 77- SB 9 Spotlight- Personal Bonds and the Changes Made to Tex. Code Crim. Pro. art. 17.03
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In SB 6 and SB 9, the Texas Legislature made major changes to article 17.03 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. On this episode of the Bail Post we begin a new series placing a spotlight on changes to the Criminal Justice System of Texas that are set out in SB 9, SB 6 and several other statutes passed by the Texas Legislature.
We will be highlightiing changes to Article 17.03 regarding the use of personal bonds in Texas. In SB 6 the changes to article 17.03 was one of three major reforms set out in the bill. In SB 9, artilce 17.03 was tweaked by adding an additional charge on which a defendant is not entitle to a persona bond (felon in possession of a weapon) and one charge was moved from group 3 to to group 2 (terroristic threat).
PBT has a one page summary of the charges and their restrictions set out in article 17.03. The document can be downloaded using the following LINK.
Additionally, if you would like additional information regarding the YOLO County Study referenced in this episode, you can find the study using the following LINK. If you would like to watch/listen to a podcast regarding the YOLO County Study, you can find this information with the following LINK.