Not just ANY bail bond joint, “A 2nd Chance Bail Bonds” in Atlanta.

  • jballs@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    51
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    To expand on why this isn’t a good look - bail bondsmen typically charge a non-refundable 10% of bail. So if you’re a former mayor who shit on your own legacy by trying to overthrow the government and your bail is set at $150,000 that means you’re paying a bail bondsman $15,000 that you won’t get back ever. That $15,000 is a fee that they apply in case they need to hire a bounty hunter to drag your delinquent ass to court.

    A person usually tries pretty hard to raise bail without paying a bondsman because they don’t want to lose that 10%. So this is basically the equivalent of Giuliani going to a Payday Loans lender to get an advance on his paycheck at a predatory rate.

    • Asimo@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      1 year ago

      Yeah just thought the pay day loans comparison from another comment.

      So so you get your bond back normally if you don’t break the terms of the bond? And this way they lose that deposit but they may only have 15k not 150k.

      • jballs@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        1 year ago

        Yeah normally you get the full amount of bail back from the court. The 10% fee is what a bondsman charges as interest / risk of your fleeing.

        • ashok36@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          Yeah, The problem isn’t the bondsman. A 10% fee to front $100k that could go poof if the perp decides to flee is reasonable, imo. The problem is cash bail in the first place. The only time it should be used is if there’s a reasonable risk of the person fleeing. Instead we use it for each and every criminal regardless, just to fuck them over.

          I’m not going to flee the country cause I got busted with a little weed but they’ll still stick you with a $5000 bond. Not to mention people that are wrongly arrested and charged. They have to come up with a ton of money, pay a bondsman, or sit in jail. All because some asshole cop decided to wrongly arrest you.