Richmond’s top prosecutor is calling on his office to stop asking for cash bonds for criminal defendants.
While the Commonwealth’s Attorney Mike Herring is making the recommendation, the judges end up making the final decision on whether or not to have a money bond bail.
Herring spoke with 8News on the phone and said he’s been thinking about this idea for three years after reading a number of studies.
The idea is causing a stir in the courtroom about what’s the best way to make sure defendants show up to court.
“There’s really no evidence that cash bail is effective in getting people to trial and preventing public safety problems,” said Bill Farrar, the Director of Strategic Communications for the ACLU of Virginia.
Advocates, like the ACLU of Virginia, are backing this move and cite a number of studies out of New York, saying it “hurts the people charged with crime.”
“Because of the disparate impact on people of color and of people who just can’t afford to pay,” Farrar said. “They sit and languish in jails as they’re awaiting trial, they can’t work their jobs and can’t support their families and their communities end up suffering.”
The Commonwealth’s Attorney says if someone is deemed a risk to the community, they’ll ask that the individual is held in jail instead of having a bond bail. If the defendant isn’t a great risk, prosecutors with the office are recommended to ask that they are released on pre-trial conditions. Herring said he saw no correlation between “money and risk” in terms of these conditions.
The individual would then have to check in with a pretrial officer, which is essentially like a probation officer.
Currently, if someone makes bond and shows up to all of their court dates, they will get the bond money back.
A change like this could put an end to bondsmen, who help defendants make bond. Clients usually pay extra, typically a percentage of their bond, for the bondsmen’s services.
“It’s something that’s worked in this country for hundreds of years, and it’s something that’s worked and it’s gotten people to court and it hasn’t cost a taxpayer not a penny,” said Stokes McCune of Henrico Bonding Company. “In most instances, when a bond is posted by a bondsman the family is involved.”
McCune has worked as a bondsman for more than a decade after he retired as a police officer in Henrico.
From his experience, McCune says when there’s money at stake people are more committed to making to their court date.
“There is skin in the game from everyone, which is good in enabling us to get the person back,” he added. “So there’s a lot of people out there keeping track of the person for financial reasons, and to help the person.”
An attorney who works with McCune agrees, saying bondsmen have a lot of contact with their clients when they’ve been released before their trial.
“If people understand that if they don’t come back that they lose a lot of money, sometimes that’s an incentive to come back to court,” said Michael Hu Young, an attorney at Barnes Family Law.
Michael Hu Young says he thinks no option should be taken off the table entirely and that “each case should be handled on an individual basis.”
The Virginia State Crime Commission is studying the bail bond system.
Richmond isn’t the only city that’s been looking into this issue. City Counselors in Philadelphia are calling on the city’s district attorney to put an end to the practice.
Find 8News on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram; send your news tips to iReport8@wric.com.
