The Bail Post

A Bail related case was argued before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals on December 7, 2022.  The Indiana State Legislature passed a bill that placed restrictions on a charitable bail funds' ability to post bonds for defendants charged with crime of violence or charged with a felony and have a prior conviction for a crime of violence.  The bill passed the Indiana Legislature and was schedu...

Josh Tetens has been practicing law throughout Central Texas since 2006.   He originally came to Waco in 1997 to attend Baylor University where he graduated with a Bachelor's degree.  Following that, he went to Baylor Law School graduating in 2005.   Josh applied for jobs as a prosecutor but was not able to find a position.  Therefore, he set up his own office and grew as a  criminal defense...

SB 6 was a major bail reform bill passed in the last Texas Legislative Session.  As a part of the reforms, SB 6 enacted 17.027 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure which applies when a defendant is out on bond for a felony charge and is arrested again on a new felony charge in the same county.  Article 17.027 states that the defendant must be magistrated by the judge over his pending case.  The...

On this episode of our podcast, we discuss the impact of rising crime on economic development.  In areas across the country we are seeing the impact of bad bail reform policies where business are suffering or closing because of decriminalization policies.  Our guest is Eric Granof who has been a guest in the past.  Eric discusses a recent presentation he gave at annual meeting for PBT on this matt...

Sean Kennedy is a writer and public policy expert focusing on crime, justice, and urban policy. His work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, City Journal, CNN, and the Chicago Tribune, among others. In August 2021, Mr. Kennedy wrote an article entitled, "Losing the Victory Over Crime" and he joins us to discuss his article.  This article was the original idea fo...

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 i...

Have you ever heard of the expression that you cannot believe your "lying eyes?"  Its a way of saying don't believe what you see, believe what you are being told.  No where is this more evident than in Harris County regarding misdemeanor bail reform.  Reformers tell us over and over that the reforms are working and that we should not believe anyone else who says otherwise (even the...

In the last few months Representative Ann Johnson publicly called for Texas to get rid of bondsmen and replace the current system of release in Texas with the system referred to as "The New Jersey Plan."   On this episode learn what the New Jersey Plan is and how pretrial release is handled under this release system.  Our guest is Michelle Esquenazi who is a bondsman from New York.  Join...

The next Guest on "The Bail Post" is James Lindblad.  He has been a bondsman in Hawaii for over 35 years.  He has witnessed many changes to the criminal justice system over the years.  Join us as we discuss HB 1567, its passage and the publics' response which caused the Governor of Hawaii to veto the bill. Mr. Lindblad suggests that the real fight was over the need for a new jail. ...

Several months ago, the Harris County Bail Bond Board adopted a new local rule that requires bondsmen to collect 10% of the face amount of certain bonds before the bond is posted.  In the short span of several months there have been some significant and quick ramifications as a result of the board's actions. On this episode join the discussion with our Guest Representative Gene Newman.   Gene...

J.R. Woolley is the Justice of the Peace of Precinct 2 for Waller County, Texas.  Judge Wooley is also the Legislative Committee Chair for the Justices of the Peace Association and he testifies before the legislature about bills that may impact the association. On this episode of the Bail Post, Judge Woolley talks about the implementation of SB6 which is the major Criminal Justice Reform/Bail Refo...

Our guest on this episode is Tarrant County Sheriff Bill E. Waybourn.  Bill began his career in service when he joined the U.S. Air Force in 1978, serving in both the active duty and reserves. On April 30, 1981, after serving active duty, Bill began working for Dalworthington Gardens Police Department. Bill was promoted to Chief of Police on June 1, 1984; making him the youngest police chief in th...

Five-time Emmy award winner Randy Wallace graduated from Eastern Kentucky University with a B.A. in Broadcasting. Randy came to Houston where he was quickly hired by KPRC Radio. He spent several years there, making a name for himself as a competitive reporter covering the police beat. In December of 1989, Randy was offered a job at KRIV FOX 26, and became one of the first reporters to appear on th...

The Honorable Ralph Strother retired from the 19th District Court in Waco, McClennan County, Texas.  He was on the bench for 22 years where he tried many high profile criminal cases.  He was appointed to the bench by then Governor George Bush.   In this episode of the Bail Post, Judge Strother talks about his incredible career, his family and his insights for addressing increasing case backlogs, s...

The Houston Police Officers Union recently issued a report addressing how misdemeanor bail reform was working in Harris County.  The report has some jaw dropping numbers:  76% failure to appear rate, 16% overall appearance rate, 72% of cases are dismissed and 176% growth in the backlog of cases over 10 years. Office Griffith discusses the report, the district attorney's report issues last yea...

Shelly Alexander is the President of the Tennessee Association of Professional Bail Agents (TAPBA).  She  was the Office Manager and a Bail Bondsman for Danny Blankenship Bonding until his sudden passing in 2017. At that time Shelly opened A Close Bonding Co., LLC, which has 17 agents in West and Middle Tennessee serving 23 counties. Ms. Alexander has been a volunteer for the Tennessee Association...

Topo Padilla is a second generation bondsmen from California.  On this episode of the Bail Post, Mr. Padilla discusses bail in California and other bail reform issues across the country.   Mr. Padilla is the newly elected President of the Professional Bail Agents of the United States.

While bail as a pretrial release mechanism has been around since our nation’s beginning and is protected in the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution, its continued use in the present day has been questioned by critics of the historically-based pretrial release mechanism. In a recent study, David Krahl, assistant professor of criminology and criminal justice at The University of Tampa, found that i...

The Bail Post and the Houston Crime Stoppers join together to tell the stories of just some of the victims of Bad Bail Reform.  In this episode, we honor the heart breaking story of Rosalie Cook, an 80 year old grandma who went to Walgreens to buy a birthday card.  But she never got the birthday card because she was killed by a defendant who was 38 years old at the time.  He had been arrested over...

Kellye and Anthony Cooper are bondsmen in Mount Pleasant, Texas.  They talk about their bonding business and the ways that they keep up with defendants and how they help improve public safety.   Also, their son is a Marine.  When they became military parents, they began looking for ways to support their son.  Kellye created a nonprofit organization referred to as "M.O.M" (Ministering Our...

We are hearing more and more about Bail Funds in the news and the stories are not positive.  Stories have highlighted instances of Charitable Bail Funds posting cash bonds for individuals with substantial criminal histories and then these same individuals go on to commit even more awful crimes upon release. Joining our discussion today are two guests: Eric Granof Vice President, Corporate Communic...

On January 7, 2022, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issues an important new opinion in Cause No. 18-11368; Daves v. Dallas County; In the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (January 7, 2022).  This is a huge decision and reverses O'donnell on a key issue.  Listen to the podcast to find out more. You can download the opinion by CLICKING HERE . You can see PBT's blog p...

Everyone agrees crime is increasing in Harris County, but there is substantial disagreement over why.  Listen to a lively discussion with our guests:  City Councilman Michael Kubosh, Officer Douglas Griffith who is President of the Houston Police Officer's Association and Mario Garza, President of the Harris County Bondsmen Association.

The Bail Post highlights the articles in the  January 2022 Newsletter of the Professional Bondsmen of Texas.

Welcome to the first episode of a new podcast.  My name is Ken W. Good and I am an attorney in Texas specializing in Bail Law.  From California to New York there has been a push for what I think now we would call bad bail reform and even bad criminal justice reform.  As we have seen crime increasing over the last year, my hope is that we can find common ground by discussing what works and why cert...