THE TIES THAT BOND

 In a nod to Carnac (and none of you 30-40 something Federalist society judges have any idea what we are talking about) : 

A 2022 calendar; a pint of eggnog bought on Christmas eve; and a bond hearing Judge:

Rumpole/Carnac The Great: Name three things that will be useless in 2023. 

Ba dum dum. 

The Scene: Your client has been arrested for passing a worthless check and is being interviewed for a bond hearing:

Bond Paralegal (BP) (holding an iPad and repeating for umpteenth time the same speech) "Hello I am Octavia your bond hearing paralegal. The answers you give will be used to calculate your bond number profile which will determine if, when and how you will be released. I will not ask you anything about your case but anything you tell me may be used against you in court. Do you understand? initial here please. 

Client: This is a mistake. I'm going through a divorce and my ex-wife wrote a check on a bank account I closed. I am a pediatric cardiac surgeon and I have a very difficult case set for later today. I need to be out to operate. 

BP : Please initial here that I advised you of this procedure. Now pursuant to the Florida Privacy and Transgender act, what pronouns do you wish to be addressed with?

Client: Huh? 

BP: I'll just put he/him. Initial here please. 

BP: Do you believe in global warming? 

Client: What does that have to do with bond?
BP: Pursuant to Governor DeSantis Bond release and Republican Judiciary act, people who hold radical beliefs may represent a specific danger to the community. 

Client: Well, yes, the science supports Global Warming. 

BP: Hmm, ok, I'll add four points. Now do you believe all the votes were counted in the last presidential election? 

Client: What does that have to do with a bond?

BP: Pursuant to the Freedom Caucus Truth in Elections Act, your answer may indicate a propensity for liberal beliefs that could be used to identity you as a member of Antifa, a dangerous gang. 

Client: Well, yes, I think all the votes were counted and there was no fraud. 

BP: I see, well, that's an additional five points. This is not going well for you. Last question: What was your annual income last year and do you own a home?

Client: I am the chief pediatric and cardiac surgeon in a local hospital and I make over three million dollars a year. I own my home in Coral Gables and own a vacation home in Vail, Colorado.  

BP: Well, I am sorry to inform you that under the 2023 Florida Bail Reform and Equality Act, you are a person of privilege and a similarly situated person of lesser economic means could not afford the ten thousand dollar bond, as such, so that you are not treated differently as an economically depressed person, you will be denied release today and held twenty-one days until the time of your arraignment so that you can experience what life for an economically disadvantaged person in the criminal justice system feels like.  The Judge will see you in three weeks. Please initial here that you have been so advised of the repercussions for being economically advantaged and arrested. Perhaps in the future you will rethink your work and earning obscene amounts of money that others cannot make. 

Client: But I have a dozen sick children set for operation in the next three weeks. They are all now going to die. 

BP: Perhaps you should have considered that before all that training, education and skill you obtained allowing you to earn the money needed to afford a bond and be a person of privilege.

Also, the air conditioning in the Dade County Jail should help you rethink those ridiculous opinions you have about global warming.  Have a nice day. 

IN AND OUTS OF BONDS - CHANGES AFOOT

UPDATE: We have spent Christmas eve eve re-reading the below screed on bonds, and perusing the list-serve that shall not be named and we have come to this disturbing conclusion- what is fueling the bond law revision is the anger at the "unfairness" of people who can afford to bond out quickly bonding out quicky while those who cannot afford to bond out quickly remain in jail. 

Now you would think the geniuses who are trying to remedy this problem would create an infrastructure to allow those people eligible for bond but who cannot afford to bond out a means to being released. But NO- these rocket scientists have decided that the way to remedy the problem is to keep more people in jail, and not let rich people bond out quicker. 

PD to client- "you will have to wait in jail over night before seeing a judge tomorrow who will release you. But to make you feel better,  that guy who got arrested in the Tesla, he has to wait too. No more quickly a posting a bond for him. We've achieved economic parity in bonds in Florida by keeping more people in. Doesn't that make you feel better?  Wait- you cannot afford to miss work tonight or you will get fired? Hmmm...that is a problem, but that rich guy cannot get out earlier. Doesn't that make you feel better? You're being treated just like him. Congrats!"

If the people from the Arnold Bakery (see below, you will understand shortly ) wanted to make recommendations about reforming bond in Florida, start by putting more cases on the ROR list, and stop making lists of 700 more crimes that require people to wait in jail longer. 

________________________________

We are a fan of anything Malcom Gladwell does. His new book -Speaking to Strangers- is another in a long line of remarkable projects he has undertaken. You know what he found about our favourite people on earth- Judges? They are no better - ZERO INCREASE- in determining if someone is lying, especially when making decisions about bond. All of their vaunted experience and training in doing their job means zero, zilch, nada, in making determinations about truthfulness. Which is why, when faced with an obviously innocent client, our robe wearers default to "a police officer wouldn't lie....I find the defendant guilty.... or deny the motion to suppress." Whatever is on the table before them.

Which brings us to PROJECT X! dum dum da dum....Yes, you many have seen your favoritie Judge scurrying around, whispering into phones in hushed voices this past year, while looking furtively about. They were talking and debating PROJECT X- AN ATTEMPT TO COMPLETLY CHANGE HOW BOND AND RELEASE IS APPROACHED IN FLORIDA. 

Currently, as you know, bond is controlled by the state who says "victim wants max" and the judge fearfully denies bond, with an election right around the corner, no sense in taking chances. Now, we have this...mess...and they did it for you (see below)

We will do some legal interpreting when the bull waste gets a little deep. 

ADVANCING PRETRIAL POLICY AND RESEARCH (APPR)

PRETRIAL JUSTICE IMPROVEMENT PROJECT PLANNED FOR 2023

 

The Miami-Dade Courts and its justice partners are collaborating on a pretrial justice improvement project.  The aim is to increase public safety, [ e.g., deny more bonds]  address inequities in the current system, [ a slight nod to racial inequity before getting back to denying bonds] and give judges more information with which to make the best pretrial detention decisions under the law in criminal court cases. [ e.g., how to deny bond without really trying that hard.].  

 The Advancing Pretrial Policy and Research (APPR) Project, now more than two years in the planning, was made possible through a competitive grant from the Arnold Foundation, now Arnold Ventures, and involves collaboration with the State Attorney’s Office, Public Defender’s Office, Miami-Dade Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Dade Chiefs of Police, Homeless Trust, and Thriving Mind South Florida. [we will pay you a dollar for every person you can prove you met who works for The Arnold Foundation, Arnold Ventures, or Thriving Mind South Florida. 

Baking bread and setting conditions of bond release since 1883. 

A project launch date has not been set but is projected sometime during 2023. [ Nobody has agreed on anything ], The project is still in the planning stages, but i[n order to provide accurate information and counter misinformation, [not that we read the blog or have any idea about the crap Rumpole spews maliciously into the mainstream of Miami legal thought]  the main components of the project, as well as the requirements of Florida law, are detailed below.

  Highlights of Florida Law Regarding Pretrial Detention

 

• The Florida State Constitution provides that “every person charged with a crime or violation of municipal or county ordinance shall be entitled to pretrial release on reasonable conditions.” Judicial officers can only consider pretrial detention for two groups of people (Fla. Const. art. I, §14):

1. those charged with a capital offense or an offense punishable by life imprisonment
2. those for whom no conditions of release can reasonably protect the community from risk of physical harm to persons, assure the presence of the accused at trial, or assure the integrity of the judicial process.

• The Florida Legislature has stated it intends for the “primary consideration” regarding pretrial detention to “be the protection of the community from risk of physical harm to persons” (Fla. Stat. § 907.041(1)) [They want everyone kept in, Woe to the judge who releases anyone.] 

 Shortcomings of Existing Pretrial Processes

            [Too  many people are being released and we had to do something] 

 Money vs Community Safety:

Because financial conditions of release are so widely used, a person’s wealth has become the primary determinant of whether they will be released or detained before trial, instead of the likelihood they will flee or pose a threat to public safety – the only two outcomes that can legally be considered.

        [But what about the judge, pandering to the state, who raises a bond from $200,000.00 to $400,000- without any understanding that the only difference in state court between the two bonds is a bondsman makes 20,000 more on a 400k bond than a 200k bond. Unlike federal cour where bonds are actually secured by property. But let's not go there and follow a system that mostly works.] 

 Existing pretrial justice procedures in Miami-Dade allow people who can afford to post monetary bond – or the 10% premium required by a bonding agent – to “bond out” of jail on any bondable offense, including violent offenses, even if they used a gun, and without ever seeing a first appearance judge. 

[Oh please, no one who shoots anyone or at anyone is getting out immediately. In the context of the above, the person who "used a gun" used it to pry open a shed to get a shovel they thought belonged to them.] 

 Inequity and Inefficient Use of Taxpayer Money:

Persons charged with minor crimes and who pose little risk to community safety remain in jail if they do not have the means to post a monetary bond. This means that taxpayer money is wasted incarcerating those who pose little risk to the community, instead of those who do pose a threat to public safety.

 [Repeat after us...blah blah blah blah]

 

What Is Not Changing

The proposed plan DOES NOT eliminate cash bail or first appearance hearings. 

[Translated into English- the Judges backed down to the lobbyists hired by the bondsmen] 

 First appearance judges will still have the discretion to set a cash bond when appropriate under the law as applied to the individual facts of each case.

 

 What Is Changing

 

No “Bond-Out” for Violent Charges, Career Criminals or Repeat Offenders:

The proposed plan DOES require all arrestees accused of violent offenses, including gun charges, to appear before a judge in a first appearance hearing before they can be released.  This is a marked improvement over our current system, which allows many people in this category to bond out without seeing a judge – regardless of the charge, [so they want us to believe people charged with 12 counts of first degree murder have been bonding out with impunity ? Yeah, right.]  prior history, or whether there is a victim who should be heard. There are more than 700 offenses which will now require a first appearance hearing. 

 

The same is true for those with extensive criminal histories, dubbed “career criminals.” Under the proposed plan, “career criminals” will be held until they can see a judge and will no longer be permitted to pay their way out of jail without a first appearance hearing.

 

 

Tools and Extensive Data for Judges:

The APPR plan provides judges and justice partners with tools and information, projecting the likelihood that an arrestee will return to court and will remain offense-free.

 The tools include:

 

• A Public Safety Assessment (PSA)an actuarial tool that looks at the type of charge, the age of the individual, any past criminal history, and other metrics to project the likelihood that they will appear for future court dates and will not re-offend while out on pretrial release.

[Hey Siri, should I give this gal a bond? This is some AI program they have been sold. Remember when Judge Farina had some discovery/trial program that was going to revolutionize how we prepared for trial. Except this is worse. Judge: "I'm denying bond based on the recommendation of the Hal 2000. "']

• A Release Conditions Matrix developed and customized for Miami-Dade County to help match a person’s scores on the PSA to pretrial release conditions. This works hand in hand with the PSA and all the decision trees that judges will use for release or detention determinations.

This is why bond is denied: