ExpertBail Agent James Lindblad Talking Bail Bonds Hawaii Style

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If you have some extra time and want to learn a little bit about the bail bondindustry from one of its most experienced and professional bail agents, than watch this video of ExpertBail Agent James Lindblad’s interview on the “Joy in Our Town” Television program last week.  In this interview James does a great job educating the host, Laureen Tanaka, on the role of a bail bondsman and bail bonds in the criminal justice system.  Additionally, he talks about the ExpertBail Network and what it means to be a member of this prestigious, “Better Business Bureau-like” Network.

James has been in the bail bond industry for 36 years and has owned and operated A-1 Bonding in Honolulu, Hawaii for over 30 years.   To read up a little more on James, check out his bail bond agent “Making a Difference” story.

via ExpertBail Agent James Lindblad Talking Bail Bonds Hawaii Style.

Senate committee to hear about plan to return Hawaii inmates

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The state plans to return Hawaii inmates incarcerated on the mainland to the islands. A Senate committee will hear more details of the plan from the Abercrombie administration on Tuesday.

The idea is to learn what the administration has planned so lawmakers can work on legislation that will help prepare inmates for successful reentry.

Hawaii does not have enough prison space for all its inmates, so roughly 1,800 — or one-third — are housed in mainland prisons.

The Tuesday briefing was announced soon after a lawsuit against the state was filed over the death of a Hawaii inmate who was killed at an Arizona prison in 2010.

The suit alleges that the state agreed to and tolerated insufficient staffing at the prison where Bronson Nunuha of Waianae was brutally slain.

via Senate committee to hear about plan to return Hawaii inmates – Hawaii News – Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

Capitol computer system links aren’t working, ACLU suggests private prisons improperly extend sentences to increase profits

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Comment on ilind.net

Check out SB 2534 which addresses delayed release on bail for those persons held at places like OCCC and MCCC due to our courts being closed and no agency willing to accept bail. These cumulative days of detention for those persons already determined bailable and who want to bail out cost money too. SB 2534 attempts to fix this but take note of the Corrections Division testimony against SB 2534 and against any relief or speeding up of bail release. Read about how persons at OCCC cannot even pay their own bail without the third party going to the court house and back. And if you go to Honolulu district court the fiscal cashier hands the person paying the bail a paper with phone numbers on it requiring them to phone OCCC to obtain the needed police report numbers as a condition of paying the fiscal officer the bail money. Anyone ever tried phoning an ACO at OCCC for information lately while standing in the courthouse hallway? I have. Why the court would require a person paying bail to do more than pay the money is perplexing and SB 2534 address this issue. After all the correction division holds persons in custody by order of the court and not vice-versa. Yet, Honolulu district court wants persons paying cash bail to tell them why they are paying bail instead of the court telling the person paying bail how much money they need to pay for a bail release at OCCC. In other words, zero coordination between Honolulu district court and OCCC. Any person wanting to bail a person out of OCCC on a minor traffic ticket from Eva Court, Kaneohe Court or Honolulu District Court will like SB 2534 because it tells OCCC to provide a means for inmates that have the money to pay their own bail. Hopefully OCCC will tell the pretrial defendant how much money they need to pay to bail out and won’t make them call the court….

Bail amounts aren’t what they seem | HeraldNet.com – Opinion

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After the 2009 murders of four police officers in Lakewood, Pierce County, a bail task force was assembled to look at Washington bail practices and:

A. try and figure out what went wrong that allowed the killer out of jail in the first place, and

B. fix it.

I was the representative of our state’s 39 elected prosecuting attorneys.

Most people on that task force thought they knew what “bail” meant, in the context of crimes, criminals and jail. After the murders, however, even some who have worked in criminal justice for decades were shocked to find out how wrong they were.

We discovered that how much money it takes to get someone out of jail is as much or as little as a bonding company will accept. We learned that some are willing to accept very little, or even nothing paid up front at all. The public is being put at risk by these decisions, which should be made by judges, not businesses.

The task force met several times, and included many thoughtful, experienced and knowledgeable people. Legislators, judges, cops, defense attorneys, victim advocates and the bail bonding industry were all represented.

In our first meeting, we identified a disturbing and curable flaw: that bonding companies, not judges, were in control.

I am writing today to tell you that currently, it appears the Legislature may do nothing to fix it. I am frustrated by that, and I think you should be, too.

When a judge sets bail at, say, $50,000, an almost universal belief was that to get out of jail, the person being held would have to give a bonding company at least 10 percent, or $5,000, up front. The bonding company would then post a bond for the whole amount and the suspect could be released. We all learned that this was a myth.

The Lakewood killer had been in jail on $190,000 bail, but was released having paid only around $3,000. (Ten percent would have been $19,000.) His family simply shopped around to different bonding companies and got the best deal they could. Public safety for sale to the lowest bidder. No episode of “Myth-busters” affects your safety like this busted myth. Perhaps this is one reason the state of Oregon eliminated bail bonding altogether, and now only accepts cash bail.

As a prosecutor for 25 years, I have attended thousands of bail hearings, and left them thinking I knew how much money it was going to take to get the guy out. Victims have walked out of court feeling either safe or not because they believed they knew, too. Judges set bail thinking they “knew” it would take at least 10 percent down for a defendant to be released.

We were wrong, and we know that now. The only remaining question is: Will the Legislature do anything about it? It doesn’t have to be 10 percent, but it has to be some certain, defined amount.

After the task force concluded its work, a bail bill was proposed in the Senate that in my opinion was akin to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, while continuing on course for the iceberg. That bill deliberately ignored the central issue of certainty, and of defining bail. I spoke with local legislators like Steve Hobbs (D-Lake Stevens), and he helped kill that flawed bill. As prosecutors we committed to working toward a bill this year that actually takes on the elephant in the room, and puts “truth in bail.”

We met with representatives of Washington’s bail industry and crafted a compromise. We agreed that everyone, including you, deserves to know exactly what a defendant will have to come up with, up front, to get out of jail. No guesswork. While a bonding company can rightfully decide what total premium to ultimately charge, the down payment, the amount it is going to take for the person to be released, has got to be known.

We compromised on 5 percent. That way, no matter what side deal is made with the bonding company, everyone will know the least amount a defendant must pay before they get out. Judges can set bail accordingly, and with confidence.

It surprised me and may surprise you that there are powerful lobbying forces and out-of-state bonding companies who do not agree with this. The Judiciary Committee and full Legislature need to resist those forces. They will listen to you. Please ask your senator or representative to push for truth and certainty in bail, because you, we, everyone deserves to know the truth.

via Bail amounts aren’t what they seem | HeraldNet.com – Opinion.