THE GUARDIAN heard a very interesting segment on NPR last week about PRETRIAL RELEASE in Broward County, Florida. Broward County is the Miami area of Florida. They were faced with building yet more jail space when they decided to implement the aggressive use of pretrial release of offenders.
Their jails were full of people who were in jail for minor offenses and were waiting to have their case go to trial. The only reason they were in jail was they could not afford the bail. Jail bed costs in Broward County are $115/day and they were running out of space.
Judges wanted to keep violent and serious offenders locked up but what to do with low level non-violent offenders who were in jail for no other reason than they were too poor to make bail.
County Commissioners decided to implement pretrial release for certain offenders using GPS leg bracelets at a cost of $2/day to the county for a net savings of $113/day. The judges had three choices when offenders came before them:
1. Released on their own recognizance
2. Release on Bail
3. Remand to custody in the county jail
Now they had another tool in the tool box. Release and house arrest with the use of GPS devices. The offender could be given work release to his job and could be tracked very easily. The system worked so well entire sections of the Broward County Jails were shut down.
Bail bondsmen have now put a stop to the program as it was hurting their business. Bail bondsmen make money by issuing a surety bond for usually 10% of the bail set by the judge. The bail money is non-refundable and the offender is released from custody.
Bail bondsmen efforts to eliminate or curtail pretrial release has taken on national efforts. They dismantled the program by severely restricting who could qualify for pretrial release with the tacit approval of the county commishes. Broward County Jails are once again full to capacity and voter face the prospect of paying for more $115/day jail beds either by renting jail space from other counties or building new jails.
Here is the link to the NPR story:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122725849
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