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2011 State Legislative Activity
Arkansas
- SB 177 (As of January 27, 2011): This bill sets the limit of active unpaid bond forfeiture judgments that each bail bonding company can have before their license is suspended at $100,000. The bill also provides the ways in which bail bonding companies can get their licenses reinstated. Bill Text
Arizona
- SB 1023: (Introduced January 12, 2011). This bill states that in counties with a population of more than two million persons, an adult probation officer may serve warrants, make arrests, and bring before court individuals who are monitored by pretrial services and are alleged to have violated a condition of pretrial release. Probation officers enforcing pretrial release conditions has the authority of a peace officer in performing his or her duties. Bill Text
Colorado
- HB 11-1088: (To House Judiciary Committee on January 20, 2011): Under current law, a bail bond agent is exempt from having his or her bond forfeited, and is exempt from signing a waiver of understanding, if the defendant is removed from the country. This bill requires the bail bond agent to execute a waiver that states he or she understands that if the defendant is removed from the country the bond is forfeited, and requires the bond of the bail bond agent to be forfeited if the defendant is removed from the country. Bill Text
Connecticut
- SB 28 (As of January 24, 2011): This bill concerns surety bail bond agents and professional bondsmen, and is intended to improve the regulation of surety bail bond agents and professional bondsmen in Connecticut.
Bill Text
Florida
- SB 494 (Prefiled January 19, 2011): This bill requires judges, when considering whether to release a defendant on bail, to determine whether the defendant is subject to registration as a sexual offender or predator and, if so, to hold the defendant without bail until the first appearance on the case in order to ensure full participation of the prosecutor and to protect the public. Bill Text
- SB 372 (January 12, 2011): This bill states that it is the policy of the state rely on the resources of the private sector to the greatest extent possible to assist in the pretrial release of defendants, and limits the eligibility of defendants to participate in pretrial services programs to only indigent defendants (those who qualify for a public defender). This eligibility criteria supersedes all local ordinances and practices, requires courts to certify in writing that the defendant has been found indigent, and prohibits pretrial programs from interfering or restricting a defendant from posting a surety bond according to a predetermined schedule. Finally, instead of using pretrial service programs, courts may establish a bond amount for an indigent defendant and counties may reimburse surety agents for the premium costs of a surety bond that secures the appearance of an indigent defendant at all court proceedings. Bill Text
Idaho
- SB 1119 (As of February 24, 2011): This bill requires defendants to post cash or property bond with the court, and requires sureties to collect the full premium prior to obtaining release for a defendant. Sureties must charge and collect their premiums at the time of the posting of the bail bond, and the defendant may be released only after the surety attaches a written affidavit to the bond attesting that the full premium has been collected. It also
prohibits sureties from having any financial affiliation with, or being indemnified by, or receiving compensation from any 'premium financier'.
Kentucky
- HB 463: Among other things, this bill provides guidelines for judges to impose GPS monitoring for medium-risk defendants, the establishment of funding for and mandatory use of evidence-based practices for pretrial supervision and intervention programs, including mechanisms for reviewing the effectiveness of programs and their use of evidence-based practices, and use of community-based programs for pretrial supervision. This bill was signed into law on March 3, 2011
Mississippi
- HB 699 (Referred to House Judiciary and Corrections Committees on January 13, 2011): This bill permits courts or parole boards, as a condition of any parole or early release allowed by the Department of Corrections, to order the posting of a bail bond to secure the appearance of the defendant at any subsequent parole or court proceedings, or to otherwise enforce the order of the parole board or court. Bill Text
Montana
- SB 147 (Referred to Senate Judiciary Committee on January 8, 2011): This bill, sponsored by the Montana State Public Defenders Office, requires public defenders to have access to jails to meet with defendants, prior to the assignment of a public defender and prior to the defendants' appearances in court, to advise them on their rights and to consult on the issues of bail and pending criminal charges. Bill Text
New Hampshire
- SB 63 (As of January 21, 2011):
This bill prohibits anyone but the secretary of state from compiling, furnishing, or altering the secretary of state's approved list of bail bondsmen and prohibits law enforcement, corrections, and court personnel from indicating a preference for any particular bail bondsman. The bill also provides that a defendant released pending trial who fails to appear within 90 days of the date required shall forfeit all designated property held by the court to secure such defendant's appearance. Bill Text
New York
- AB 3608: This bill directs courts to exonerate bail and order recognizance when no grand jury action has occurred for 45 days from arraignment, unless the state can show good cause otherwise.
Bill Text
- AB 2904 (As of January 21, 2011): This bill amends the criminal law to deny bail for persons charged with driving while intoxicated in certain instances. Bill Text
- AB 2976 (As of January 21, 2011): This bill allows a superior court to order bail or recognizance for a defendant who has been convicted of a class A-II felony if the defendant is providing, or has agreed to provide, material assistance pursuant to paragraph (b) of subdivision 1 of section 65.00 of the penal law. Bill Text
- SB 259: This bill requires courts, when deciding whether to impose an order of recognizance or bail, to consider whether a defendant is a danger to an alleged victim, members of the community, or to himself or herself. This includes consideration of prior threats of or attempts of suicide, history or patterns of violent acts, records of orders of protection, and the violent nature of the charged crime and the impact of that crime on the alleged victim. Bill Text
Oklahoma
- SB 476: (Introduced January 20, 2011): This bill makes it unlawful for anyone whose bail bondsman license has been suspended, revoked, surrendered, or refused, to do or perform any of the acts of a bail bondsman. Anyone convicted of violating this provision will be guilty of a felony, and be punished by a fine of $5,000 or one to five years imprisonment. Bill Text
Tennessee
- HB 178 (As of January 26, 2011): This bill creates the Citizens' Right to Know Act, applicable to all Tennessee jurisdictions with populations of 300,000 or greater. Under this bill, the pretrial release programs in those jurisdictions must prepare a register containing information on cases and defendants who are recommended for release by the program, including the number of defendants released, the number who fail to appear, and the number that are re-arrested. It must also contain reports of the program's budget. This register must be available to the public and updated monthly. Bill Text
Texas
- HJR 86 (As of February 7, 2011): This bill proposes an amendment to the Texas Constitution which would deny bail to certain persons who are arrested for a felony and are not lawfully present in the United States.
- SB 881 (As of March 4, 2011): This bill would add voluntary or involuntary deportation of the defendant to the reasons for which defendants and sureties may be exonerated on forfeited bonds.
- HJR 98 (As of March 4, 2011):This bill proposes a constitutional amendment that would permit the denial of bail to persons charged with either a violent offense (as defined within the proposal) or a sexual offense and who has previously been convicted of a violent offense or sexual offense. This proposal will be submitted to voters on November 8, 2011.
Virginia
- HB 2437 (As of January 19, 2011): This bill prohibits a bail bondsman from charging less than 10 percent, or more than 15 percent, of the amount of the bond for a bail bond premium. It also prohibits the financing of a bail bond premium without a written agreement and prohibits the bondsman from surrendering the person subject to the bond solely for their failure to perform obligations under the bond agreement. Bill Text
- HB 2450 (To House Committee on Courts of Justice on January 19, 2011): This bill removes the mandatory requirement that communities establish pretrial services agencies as part of community-based corrections programs and makes it permissive or optional. Bill Text
Washington
- S-0060.2/11 (2nd draft): Among other things, this bill would provide for the development, validation, use, and monitoring of a risk assessment tool to be used in pretrial release and detention, provides funding to courts for implementation of the tool, and increases regulation of commercial sureties in as follows: 1) permits sureties to return defendants to custody only for good cause, upon penalty of returning all fees to the defendant; 2) requires sureties to report unpaid forfeitures with the licensing board; 3) expands the definition of "unprofessional conduct" to include surrendering defendants without good cause and entering into contracts to act as power of attorney over a defendant's assets, finances, or property. This bill is a working draft and is not yet available online.
- HB 3056: As of Jan 21, 2011: This bill requires judicial officers to consider community safety in setting nonfinancial pretrial conditions of release, and to detain defendants prior to trial where the officer finds that no conditions of release will assure the safety of the community or of other persons. The bill provides for a variety of procedural steps the court must take before detaining the defendant, and elucidates the category of defendants to which this bill applies. This bill was introduced concurrently last session with an amendment to Washington's Constitution that permitted the pretrial detention was approved and ratified by Washington's voters on November 2, 2010. Bill Text
- HB 2625: As of January 11, 2011: This bill requires judges to determine bail and pretrial release on an individualized basis for every person arrested and detained for a felony offense. It states that the legislature's intention is to eliminate the practice of allowing release on bail where the bail is based on a bail schedule and not individually determined by a judicial officer. Bill Text
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Federal Legislation
- HR 408 (As of January 24, 2011): This bill, as introduced in the House of Representatives, seeks to reduce Federal spending by $2.5 trillion through fiscal year 2021. It seeks to prohibit any funds from being appropriated or otherwise made available to any Federal department or agency for a variety of programs or purposes, including any grants provided under the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program (JAG Grants), insofar as such grants are for pretrial services.
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