You can’t blame bail bondsmen for this mess

This is two days in a row that the editor of the Albuquerque Journal has written a piece on crime and bail reform. I’m starting to think that maybe there is a problem here with crime. After all, if the editor can figure this out then why can’t the N.M. Supreme Court? The court set this whole problem up by changing the Rules of Criminal Procedure, and now we are waiting for “guidance” from it? The rule changes cut the jail population in half (and) made release on recognizance “a promise to appear” the preferred method and basically only option used for releasing someone from custody.

The other thing that happened is almost every single bail bond agent in this state was forced to close his business. The bail bond agents were accused of everything bad you can think of and blamed for the problems with the criminal justice system. Well, we have been gone for years now and crime is worse than ever, so who really is to blame? All these repeat offenders we hear about in the news daily are all out of jail ROR, none are on a secured bond. Four years of release on recognizance for every crime imaginable, unsecured bonds, Pre-Trial Services supervision and every other unenforceable condition of release has clearly been a failure.

Remember, the guys in jail are going to agree to anything so long as it gets them out of jail by simply agreeing to comply and appear in court. Nothing required from the offender but his “promise to appear.”

It’s strange how I have yet to speak with anyone involved or not involved in the criminal justice system that has said, “Wow, things are working great.” Especially the public defender and those groups who fought hard for bail reform suddenly have nothing to say, probably because hundreds of their clients across N.M. are sitting in jail with no option of bond as a result of bail reform. It sounds to me like a case of be careful what you ask for, you might get it.

Back to the crime in Albuquerque, 80 homicides reported in 2019 and 77 in 2020 and 34 already this year. This is not a coincidence folks, the way some people suggest. This is all happening since the N.M. Supreme Court changed the rules and in-jail-todayand-out-tomorrow-ROR is the standard used by judges in New Mexico.

As the crime problem rages on and the media continues to cover it, there is plenty of finger-pointing as to who is to blame. Tim Keller ran for mayor of Albuquerque promising to get tough on crime, and that didn’t happen. APD gets blamed for not cleaning things up, after all it is “short handed and operating under a difficult oversight agreement.” The bail bond agents used to get blamed, but now we’re out of the picture, so who is to blame? As I’ve said a hundred times, the N.M. Supreme Court controls the rules on criminal procedure, and the blame lies at its feet and local judges who keep turning these offenders right back out on simply “a promise to appear.”

So, as the editor eloquently said “this reform amendment may have very well gone down in flames” and “if we really want to get a handle on crime, APD and the criminal justice system need to do a whole lot better.”