Latest / Stuff You Should Know / How Bail Works

Transcript

How Bail Works · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: from house Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant. Hello,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: and this is stuff you should know? Yes right, indeed, So, Chuck,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: how are you doing? I'm good and well yourself. That's enough, pansy, Chuck.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: You know they've been arrested a couple of times. I
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: do know that, and I have not, as you know,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: and you're very fortunate. It's not a pleasant experience. I'm
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: sure you get booked, yes, right, the fingerprint you sure?
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: They make fun of how fat you look. They take
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: all the things out of your pockets. Yea, and keep
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: them not whatever. Know, they give them back. They carefully
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: catalog everything except any hundred dollar bills you have on you.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Do you have a mug shot? I do? And actually
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: when they took my mug shot, I was smiling and
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: they thought it was funny, so they blew it out
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: full size and hung it on the processing center wall. Really, yeah,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: now do you actually have that? They don't give you
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: a copy, that dud I do really. Yeah, I asked
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: for a copy. You should have to find it somewhere. Yeah,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: should see if you're famous enough to get on the
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Smoking Gun Yeah, the smoking guy. Yeah, I'm not. You're
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: not people like who. Yeah, there there is a munk
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: shot out there. So if anything ever happens to us,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: then it'll it'll surface, I'm sure. Yeah. Um, but I'm
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: here to tell you that you can get out of
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: jail if your bail is set like five thousand dollars
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: and all you have is five hundred. Not a bad deal, No,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: especially if you have a friend who's willing to come
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: lend you five dollars to get out. Yeah. Sure, But
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: how would you do that, Chuck? How what kind of
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: sense does that make? If you're If you're bail, the
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: amount that's required to release you from jail until your
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: court aid uh is five thousand dollars. How can you
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: get out for five? Well? I would I would think
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: that that's some sort of security type of deposit kind
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: of yeah, or the pecurity deposit. Yeah. Maybe are we
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: talking about bail? We're talking about bond buddy, Okay, Yeah,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: I just wanted to officially introduce the Bail Show we're
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: doing a two parter here, right, Yes, this was brought
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: to our attention by listener Steve who saw a little
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: MPR thing on bail, and Josh happened to hear the
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: same one, right yeah, and found it very interesting. Right. Yeah.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: It was a three part um. It was a three
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: part series on MPR from Laura Sullivan who really got
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: to the heart of the matter and kind of exposed
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: a pretty serious racket that's going on here in the
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: United States that unfairly burdened the poor. Well, we'll get
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: to that, but we want to cover bail first, and
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: then part two of the series will be Bounty Hunters.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: So when we don't talk about that dog jerk in
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: this podcast, don't send us an email. Wait two days
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: and you'll hear all about them. Yeah. Okay, So, like
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: I said, Chuck, bail is basically um money that you
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: ex change to the court in return for your freedom
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: after you're arrested. Right, Yeah, how this all start? Well, frankly,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: it started a long time ago, Chuck. It started in
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: the thirteenth century. Um, I believe the UK. I'd say,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: we weren't around back then, No, we weren't. But it
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: started in the uk Um in the thirteenth century, where
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: so a surety, A surety is somebody who assures your bond,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: your bail, right, um was actually a person rather than money.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: Well it used to be a person, is that what
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: you're saying? Yeah, And they would actually hang in your
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: place if you skip bail. Yeah, So I mean somebody
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: really had to love you to stand in as your
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: your surety, your your bail. I bet that didn't happen
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: a lot back then. I wouldn't guess. Yeah, I mean
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: maybe if the person who was arrested was like a
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: quadruple amputee, then I'm sure you can find somebody who's
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: a surety. But other than that, I don't know. I
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: don't know that I would have put myself up right.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: And so then habeas corpus comes along, yeah, in the
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: seventeenth century, right, and that basically established terms for bail,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: and then the Bill of Rights in England there shortly
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: thereafter UH talked about excessive bail and kind of set
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: some more parameters on what you could do. Right, Yeah,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: Habeas corpus remember we did that podcast on that. Indeed
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: kind of huge, but yeah, that created the idea of
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: bail for money or money as bail. And then in
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: the United States we adopted a lot of the the
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: the English common law that had to do with bail
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: and jailing and all that, uh, and we came up
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: with the Judiciary Act of what sev. Nine. Yes, And
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: what I found most interesting is that that sucker state
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: in effect and fairly unchanged in nineteen sixty six. Yeah,
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: it's a long time, it is, but I mean it's
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: it's pretty basic stuff. It's if you are arrested, uh,
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: and you're not a threat to the community, you should
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: be able to post bail because you know, people like
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: their money and you want your money back. That's the
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: whole point of the thing. If you you're saying, here,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: five thousand dollars, I'll be back from my court date,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: because you are going to give me that five thousand
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: dollars back, right right. Um. So, yeah, it did remain
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: unchanged until nineteen sixty six, although it was put into
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: the eighth Amendment that people would be granted bail and
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: that bail would not be excessive. And that's the same
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: one that contains the cute little provision about um no
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: cruel or unusual punishment. So sixty six, it changed some
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: and then it changed again, and what we ended up
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: with was, uh, some loopholes were closed that allowed dangerous
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: people to go free. More limits were imposed on judges,
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: and they basically made it to wear a non violent
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: criminals were the ones most apt to get bail, and
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: if you were a violent criminal, your bail was probably
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: pretty large or denied. Right. And originally, if you were
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: accused of a capital crime where you could get the
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: death penalty, you couldn't have bail. And I'm pretty sure
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: that still remains in effect. But yeah, and uh, there's
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: a lot of places, especially huge metropolitan areas like say
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Los Angeles, UM, that have bail schedules. There's just so
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: many people coming in and out of the doors that
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: they're like, oh, perjury, well then that's a five thousand
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: dollar bail. They just literally look it up on their chart,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: follow their little finger across right until they get to
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: kidnapped with intent to rape? And and what was that one?
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Actually one million dollars? Sure, and it should be pretty high,
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: I would think so, right, So, Chuck, let's say someone
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: is caught kidnapping and they have some sort of malicious
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: intent associated with it, and their bail set at a
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: million dollars. They have a million dollars? Uh, say they
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: have an AMEX black card, right, all right, good for them.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: They can slap that puppy down and pay what's called
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: the cash bail. Yes, many places, but that they would
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: rack up on sky miles a bad criminal who gets
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: caught a lot with the But they do some places
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: to accept check, some credit cards or just good old
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: fashioned green backs. Right. But let's say that you have
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: a million dollars or you don't. Your your bail is
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: a million dollars, but you can only come up with
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: a hundred grand in cash? Right, Yes, who are you
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: gonna call? Not ghostbusters, a bail bondsman, Josh, or a bailor? Right,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: it's another name. Yeah, you remember in Athens they were
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: like T shirts, bail bond t shirts, and they give
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: you like a teen percent discount if you wear it.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: I can't remember. I mean that lay were literally it
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: was an institution Athens. I can't. I can't remember that.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: I don't either. They have match books in all the bars. Yeah,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: they were very famous. Actually, did you ever have one
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: of those? Did they help you out? Or was that
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: in Athens? It wasn't an athen that I was arrested.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: No more questions, Okay, I'll let you off on this one.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: So Chuck, what what when you call bail bondsman? What
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: you're what? They're gonna put up as a surety bond?
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: Remember we talked about. A surety is somebody who um
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: says I will cover this person's bail. Yeah, And that's
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: basically the bail bondsman. And they are backed by an
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: insurance company, a very special insurance company. Obviously they don't
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: have just a regular farm policy. And they are now
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: on the hook for you appearing in court and they
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: have to pay that uh you know, huge sum of
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: money if you don't show, right, So they'll take a
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: teen percent premium. Sure, well yeah, that's why they do it.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: And that's on top of everything else, right, Yeah, And
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: then they'll put up the money or they'll say, actually
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: they don't put up the money. They say, I will
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: put up the money out like you said, I'm on
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: the hook now, um. But they'll also take some collateral,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: maybe like a title to your parents house or the
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: title of your car, some jewelry or whatever. They will
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: also Josh, get friends and family involved to help chip
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: in and uh so that way, if they're kind of
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: on the line, they think the person will show up
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: for court. Right, Yeah, you're you're kind of indebted to
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: your parents for bailing you out and putting their house up,
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: and you don't want your poor parents to lose their house,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: right exactly. Um, you can also do We'll get some
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: more on that, right yeah, yeah, okay. You can also
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: do released on on citation, where the cop just basically
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: it's like the same trap ticket is a released on
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: citation bail. That's my favorite kind of bail, is it?
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: My favorite is the kind where they're like, you know what,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: I'm not even going to give you this ticket. Go ahead,
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: just be careful. Yeah exactly, Yeah, that's my favorite. There's
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: released on recognisance. Yeah, that's when you actually are booked
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: and arrested, but uh crime is probably not so severe
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: and definitely not violent, and they'll say, we trust it,
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: you'll show up, You're not a flight risk, don't worry
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: about paying anything. And then, uh, we we talked about
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: how your parents can give their house title is collateral
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: to a bounty hunter. You can actually do that in sorry, yes,
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: you can do that in some states with the the
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: jail directly through a property bond on the spot. Yeah,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: the court places a lean in the amount of the
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: bail against your say your house or your land or whatever. Um.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: And if you skip, then they can foreclothes on it
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: and actually sell it to get their money back. Yeah.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: So well they use if you have, like you said,
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: the five dollars, if your bail was fifty thou, would
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: you give that five hundred to the bail bondsman? Is
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: that how that works? Yeah? What they do is, let's
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: say you're usually they charge ten percent premium, right, so
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: that's just their feet, right, that's just their feet because
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: it's a ten percent, it's ten percent usually of the bail.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: People assume that, Um, what you're doing is you've just
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: carved out ten percent and then you know they you
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: don't owe them anymore. Not true. No, this is tim
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: percent on top of the bail. So if it's fifty
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: thou dollars, the ten percent will be five thousand dollars.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: And that's just the money they took for saying i'll
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: i'll cover you. Yeah. It's basically loan interest exactly, very
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: quick and urgent loan. Yeah. And and that is it's
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: very it's it's alone. They're loaning you your freedom. Basically, um, chuck.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: Dealing with bail bondsman is um the most common way
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: to get out of jail. Yeah. Uh, you know, people
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: can't come up with five grand bail, but they can
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: usually come up with five premium. Sure, that's the the
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: whole deal. And we'll get into that later about the poor,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: but not very many people can afford their bail. Even
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: if they're rich fat cats. They will often set the bail.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: I just saw the record was last October. Did you
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: see that. The guy's name, he was the head of
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: the Galleon Group and they were apparently did some insider
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: trading RAJ Roger ATNHAM and he set the record in
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: October one million dollar bail. Bernie Madels is only ten million,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: if that tells me. So he had twenty mill to
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: put down as his I guess deposit and the judge
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: said all right, you can hang out, and the bill
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: bondsman was like, yes, score, because that's twenty that's pure
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: profit to pure profit. Um. And when you're dealing with
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: the bail bondsman, there's some things you want to look for.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: I mean, their their business people. Um, they deal with
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: some of the seedier quarters of society, right, Yeah, but
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: it's a real business and the documents are very real
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: as well, and you want to very you at the
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: very least, you want to be aware of what you're
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: signing in most cases, and you definitely want to read
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: it as well. You can't. No, you're kind of stuck
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: between a rock and a hard place. But you have
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: to be aware of what you're signing when you sign
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: the Bill Bond contract because it is an extremely powerful
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: and pretty much airtight contract. We'll get to exactly all
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: it entails and in the Bounty Hunter episode. But just
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: this isn't like, hey, I'll come back for court. That's
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: not all that that thing says. Now you're signing a
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: way certain rights and that big one that's the teaser
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: for Thursday show. Yeah, so um, Chuck. You also want
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: to make sure that a Bill bondsman that you're dealing with,
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: um will be responsive to questions from your family, is
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: easily contact as a cell phone, that kind of thing.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: And if you get the impression that your Bill bondsman
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: is not going to um be there for you, then
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: you you want to move along and find another one
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: that you feel more comfortable with in every town is
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: a lotusy with bail bondsman because every town is allows
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: well not every town, but many towns are allowsy with crime. Sure,
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: and then one leads to the other. So Josh. The
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: other thing you should do if you go to hire
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: bail bondsman is uh like, if you're hiring any personal contractor,
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: look at their I d get their make sure they're
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: registered or license that they have to be. I think
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: you have to be licensed in every state now, right
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: if it's legal. Yeah, there are states where it's not legal.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: We'll get to that in a second. Okay, So check
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: out their credits. UM, ask for detailed explanations of UM
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: any kind of fees in addition to the ten percent.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: You don't want to get a bill at the end
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: that says, well you had to pay for this, this
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: and this as well, right, So just make sure it's
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: on the level. And like you said, make sure that
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: they communicate with you regularly. UM. And if you if
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: you aren't comfortable with who you're who you're talking to,
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: ye again, just move along unless there's a you're in
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: a state one of four states in the Union that
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: just do not allow commerce for bail bond market whatsoever.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: And where's that there? Uh, Wisconsin, Oregon, Illinois, and Kentucky
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: all have laws on the books that outlaw commercial bail bonding. Um,
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: Wisconsin doesn't in a roundabout way, which says that no surety,
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: remember the person that gets you out, uh can be
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: compensated for being a surety. And well that's how they
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: make their money in the bail bond market. So there's that. UM.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: And then say, like Kentucky expressly outlaws of bail bond industry. Yeah,
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: so in those states you have to put up your
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: own money or a property bond or something like that,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: or I imagine they probably have higher rates of being
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: released on your own recognizance. Yeah, maybe maybe not, or
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: maybe you're just s o L. If you're in Kentucky.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: Well if you're UM, poor, chuck your s O L.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: In the United States, we were talking about the MPR
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: report by Laura Sullivan. Yeah, I gotta say, I think
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: everybody should go read this. It really it really exposed
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: a round packet in the US between UM, the criminal
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: court system and Bill Bondsman. Yeah, they used UM. Broward County,
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: Florida is a really great example because they had a
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: situation down there where they were kind of a situation
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: that's all over the country. Jails are full, uh, tax
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: stay dollars are like people are paying tons of money
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: to keep these people. Nine billion a year in the US.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: A hundred and fifteen dollars a day is what it
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: cost to jail someone, at least in Broward County. Yeah,
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: per inmate. That's like a you know, not the worst
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: hotel in the world. Now. And there are alternatives, specifically
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: pre trial programs, yes, and that is when they release
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: people with UM sometimes as GPS or ankle monitoring systems. Uh.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: Sometimes you just have to call in or text when
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: their home and stay within a certain radius of their home.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: And it was a huge, huge success, right, and then
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: it dried up. All funding for it dried up except
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: for just the tiniest amount. Why because as of bribes,
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: well not bribes, we should c o a here, because
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: bail bondsman rallied together and UM hired a lobbyists and
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: they wrote a bunch of checks to the Bard County commissioners. Yeah,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: the commissioners and the mayor as well, right, and actually
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: chuck the uh, the mayor of the Commissioners, the head
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: of the Board of Commissioners UH. Four days before this
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: vote on pre trial funding, UM got fifteen checks totaling
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: five grand from local bail bondsman for his campaign. Yeah,
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: and pre trial it was it was it cost about
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: two dollars a day, where you said that keeping someone
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: in jail cost a hundred and fifteen a day. Yeah,
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: they were able to shut down a twenty million dollar
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: wing of their jail. It was that popular and successful
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: the program. But the problem is because it was popular
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: and successful, there were people who normally would have gone
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: to a bail bondsman UH to get out of jail,
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: who were just getting out through the pre trial pre
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: trial programs. So, like you said, they got a lobbyist
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: who's actually also a lobbyist for the boarder commissioners and
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: got the whole thing shut down basically like a few
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: people who are still in the program. UM. But it's
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: not nearly what it used to be, even though it
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: was a success. So there's one way that bail bondsman
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: I mean manipulating the system. UM. And another part of
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: that MPR report, people in Lubbock, Texas were profiled and
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: these people like they're they're bail. Their bond would have
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: been like seventy five bucks because they had like seven
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: fifty dollar bail. But these are very, very poor people
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: that can't come up with seventy five bucks. They don't
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: have anybody to borrow it from, so they're rotting in
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: jail for months. One guy stole forty dollars worth of
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: blankets because he was cold in the station wagon one night. Um,
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: and he's been in jail for four months to thousands
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: and thousands of dollars, thousands of dollars. And the reason
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: is is these bills bail bondsmen are saying, this is
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: a cutthroat industry and we can't afford to let anybody
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: who would potentially be a customer slip through. So that
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: means that people who can't afford to be a customer
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: don't have the option of pre trial because it was
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: shut down. Um, so they get to stay in jail
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: at the taxpayer expense, to benefit only the bail bond industry.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: And you know, I'm all for capitalism and someone earning
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: a buck, I'm not anti bail bondsman, not at the
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: expense of someone's freedom. Well, and the fact that it's
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: if you're talking about the bail bondsman, maybe a few
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: of them shutting down or costing the taxpayers billions of dollars.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: It's just there's it's a no brainer. No, it isn't.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: But again, powerful lobby as as uh Laura Anderson points
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: out the you know, most indigent inmates don't have a lobby. Well, yeah,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: and I think she said fifty of people in jail
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: are the only reason they're in jails because they can't
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: afford bail. Yeah, that's at least in Brower County. So
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: billions of dollars in taxpayer money, months and months of
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: freedom for inmates, um or incarceration for inmates, and the
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: bail bond industry is thriving. Right, there is another way
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: that they are thriving. Actually, chuck um, they don't pay
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: up when people run. Wh Yeah, what do you mean?
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: So as part of a kind of a punishment in
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: most states, if you're a bail bondsman and you're somebody
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: skips um, you're supposed to automatically pay that, say, five
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars. They don't intesta no, so they keep the
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: premium a ten percent premium, and then sometimes they well,
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: in most cases they negotiate um with the county. Yeah,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: about five percent of the actual bail is what they
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: end up paying. So that means that they got a
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: ten percent premium. All right, they made five percent of
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: that for doing nothing. That's it. They don't have to
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: pay out any money. They're insured anyway, though, So even
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: when they do have to pay out, they're not really
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: paying out right. I'm sure they're insurance premiums are sky high,
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: but I'm sure we're gonna hear from a bail bondsman.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: I would like to actually, well, Chuck, let's let's go
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: on to the next episode two days from now. Well,
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: I have a quick question because my favorite all time
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: movie comedy is Midnight Run Really oh yeah, Robert de
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: Niro and Charles Gardens and is probably the best bounty
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: hunter movie ever made. In that movie, the bounty hunter
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: Joey Pants hired I'm sorry, the bail bondsman hired two
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: bounty hunters to cover the same case. And that's where
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: a lot of the comedy comes from. The great John
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: Ashton opposite de Niro. Is that true? Can that happen? Uh?
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: It depends? Yeah, really, sure you can have freelance bounty
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: hunters running your cases. Well, I thought it said in
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: the article that they try to keep ethical boundaries set
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: because it's no good. All right, but you can, okay,
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: depending cost a lot of problems in the movie. Have
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: you ever seen Dead Man? Oh? Yeah, caused a lot
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: of problems in that movie too. Yeah, a good point. Yeah,
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: specifically one smushed head. Yes, God, I love that movie.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: Do you know? It took me probably five or six
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: times of seeing it before I realized it's actually a
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: dark comedy. Uh, there's some funny parts, for sure. No,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: watch it like that. Like the whole thing is a
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: dark comedy from beginning to end. It's a great soundtrack too,
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: by the way. Yeah, I have that the great Neil Young.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: I'm not a big Neil Young fan, but I even
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: like that so well because he didn't sing. So here
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: we go. Yeah, okay, well Chuck, that's it for bail
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: right now? All right? Yeah, I'm it'll come up here
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: there when we talk about bounty hunters in two days.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: But in the meantime, what is it time for listener mail?
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: It is Josh, Josh, I'm gonna call this blood transfusion
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: from Jehovah's witness. Oh yeah, actually it's not from a
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: Jehovah's witness, but it's a good story. This is from Mito,
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: and Mito is Portuguese. Yes, it's from Portugal. Cool. Hello, guys,
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: I heard your podcast about organ donation and you mentioned
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: Jehovah's witnesses not being big on blood transfusion. Have a
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: little scoop on that. My father was a doctor in
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: Brazil and many years ago he came home all shaken
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: up when he told us a story. He revealed that
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: he came upon an accident where a small kid came
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: into his operating room. Man just stabilized a kid and
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: all he needed was a blood transfusion and he would
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: go home in a few days. And I know you
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: know where this is headed. The kid's family was Jehovah's witness.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: They argued with the father um for hours and basically said,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: very clearly, we would rather him die than get a
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: blood transfusion. So, like any good doctor, the or I
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: don't know if that's true or not, but like this
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: doctor did, he basically went against their wishes and gave
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: the kid a transfusion without the parents knowing it. Exactly.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: The parents got really mad and we're ready to take
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: his medical license, but the kid awoke by that time, smiling.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: Seeing this, the parents started crying, thanked my father for
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: saving his life. More than ten years later, they still
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: received Christmas gifts my dad does from them every year,
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: so they're like, oh, hey, this is kind of nice.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: Actually my son lives. Well, you remember the Jehovah's witnesses
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: believed that the blood becomes impure once it leaves the body. Yeah,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: it seemed to How about this guy, Yeah, it seems
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: seemed to impure to me. So he attached a picture
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: of his father and says, uh, there's one of many
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: stories that turned my father into a hero while I
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: was a boy. He saves life for a living, lives
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: for a living. Doesn't that make a hero? Definitely? And
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: I say absolutely. And he emailed back and he said
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: his dad also gave a big pen tricky out of
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: me one time. Awesome. So this dude is on the scene.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: I told you about a friend of mine whose mom
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: got an emergency tricky out of me with a steak
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: knife and a straw. Yeah. Yeah, So kudos to you, Mito,
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: and to your father. And he also sent a picture
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: of his little nephew, Lucas we just welcomed into the
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: world and whom his father delivered. So he does a
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: little bit everything. Yeah, it sounds like a pretty good
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: guy and a hero indeed. Well, if you have a
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: great hero story, Chuck and I want to hear it right, Yes,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: you still make it up? Please don't. You can put
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: it in an email and send it to stuff podcast
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: at how stuff works dot com. For more on this
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics, is it how stuff works
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: dot com. Want more how stuff works, check out our
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: blogs on the how stuff works dot com home page.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: It's ready, are you