OPINION
As a dynamic and diverse country, the United States faces many issues; many of them urgent. As a nation, we grapple with the solutions to make our quality of life better, for all, than it was yesterday.
One major dilemma we find ourselves in is the concept of what is commonly referred to as "bail reform."
Restructuring bail provisions in America is proving to have an impact on public safety, and not a very positive one at that.
And whether it's "bail reform" or "criminal justice reform" or reforming law enforcement, seemingly the implication is that benevolent change and "progress" will soon follow.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Allow me as an expert to be crystal clear, there is no reform and there is absolutely nothing good to follow. The proof is found in major U.S. cities where these reforms were rolled out. They not only deal with high rates of crime, but also a lack of public safety.
Current bail reform policies that have swept into major U.S. cities have key selling points so that the public can feel good about imposing such reforms.
First selling point?
Bail reform will lower incarceration rates and keep crime rates the same.
Second selling point?
Lowering incarceration rates and/or jail populations will save counties millions of taxpayer dollars.
Third selling point?
People languish in jail because they simply can't afford pre-trial, or other forms of release. This implies that due process and individual rights are being violated.
Fourth selling point?
Bail reforms will only apply to "non-violent" misdemeanor offenses.
So the overall concept of bail reform is to release defendants on unsecured bonds or what is commonly known as O.R. (their own recognizance).
All these selling points would have you believe that everything else will take care of itself— between the delicate balance of accountability and public safety.
These so-called reforms prove that no city or county is immune from the failures of progressive bail reform, with all its optimistic, rose-colored-glasses selling points.
Progressive bail reform fails to deliver to society.
A society hanging their desperate hopes on such pie in the sky measures.
Harris County, Texas is no more immune to these failures than suburban, or metropolitan New York, California, Chicago, Illinois, and Atlanta.
Harris County, Texas has seen 500% recidivism, 435 Murders in 2022; offenders re-offending at a rate of 95% (in one year!), 119% (6 months, 139% ( in 90 days!).
Harris County, Texas now has a case backlog of 140,000 criminal cases (as of 2022).
Prior to these reforms Harris County was number 23 for murders in the U.S.
Currently, it's now number three for murder; right behind Chicago and Los Angeles County, California.
While jail overcrowding was an issue in Harris County prior to the reforms, we did not have the crime problem to go with the overcrowding problem.
Now that the criminal justice system has been at a breaking point, we see massive dismissals of both misdemeanors and felony cases to ease the backlog.
The message those dismissals sends to offenders is: they will not be held accountable for their criminal actions.
The massive release of criminal defendants on O.R. or extremely low bonds have created an 85% failure to appear rate.
This translates to a large fugitive population that when forced to be apprehended are now more likely to resort to violence to avoid incarceration.
The overall conclusion is that "bail reform" fails to reduce incarceration rates because defendants recycle into jail at a faster rate than they can be released on bond.
It fails to reduce county spending that's required to keep up with court system backlogs, more policing, and massive jail overcrowding.
The major falsehood sold by bail reform-adherents is that it's strictly designated for "non-violent" offenses.
Once "non-violent" has been redefined to include all crimes violent or otherwise, then, it becomes an across-the-board mass-release, regardless of prior criminal history, or the heinousness of the offense in question.
The violation of individual due process rights that "bail reform" would have you believe is another one of its falsehoods.
Most state appeals courts and federal appeals courts have held that defendants don't have a right to be free from a wealth-based detention, or have a right to affordable bond.
Secured bail is the guarantee that a bond is set high enough to ensure that the defendant returns to court via disposition of the criminal matter.
The whole concept of these bail reforms completely falls apart when confronted with the mandated justice for crime victims.
These policies and their outcomes make no room or exception for families, or the public, who become victims of crime.
There are no victimless crimes.
Bail reform doesn't work because criminal behavior can be predicted based on prior criminal history and natural patterns of criminal behavior.
Basically, criminal behavior by an offender in New York is not going to have a different response to bail reforms than criminal behavior from an offender in Harris County, Texas.
Thus, it's absolutely absurd for elected officials to believe otherwise.
The greatest tragedy and failure of bail reform and criminal justice reform is people who still might be alive today, especially if those elected to protect us had used wisdom and basic common sense, to know how this would likely end.
Bail reform was and is a dangerous experiment administered at the expense of that delicate balance between accountability and public safety.
Mario Garza is the President of Professional Bondsmen of Harris County, Texas sits on the Harris County Bail Board of Bondsmen and is the Sgt. at Arms of the National Association of Bail Agents.
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