Deposit system (United States)

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The bond system in the United States has developed due to the legal and procedural situation there, which in some cases differs considerably from other countries (e.g. Germany).

In the US, on bail , a defendant can remain free until the trial and does not have to be detained. The provision of bail is intended to ensure that the accused will appear at the main hearing.

Under the 8th Amendment to the United States Constitution , the amount of bail must not be disproportionate.

sense

When a suspect is arrested, the question arises as to where he spends the time before the main hearing. In many European countries, the suspect remains at large unless there is a risk of escape (or other hazards, especially risk of blackout ). A permanent residence in the country is usually sufficient for this. Otherwise the suspect would be in custody .

In the United States, however, this form of pre-trial detention does not exist, so the accused is immediately sent to a normal prison. On the other hand, it is easier to go underground in the United States than in Europe, as it may be. a. there is no reporting requirement. Therefore, unless certain serious charges are involved, the US legal system offers the option of waiting freely for the trial on bail . This is common practice in the United States.

The bail serves as security that the accused appears properly at the opening of his main hearing in court - otherwise the bail falls to the state after a certain period. At the end of the due process, if the defendant has appeared at all hearing, the deposit will be returned. It does not matter whether the defendant was acquitted or found guilty.

In 2017, a change in the law was passed in New Jersey according to which, instead of a cash deposit, an algorithm (Public Safety Assessment) should be used to calculate the probability of whether a person will appear for the hearing and whether he or she will commit a crime at large. The result of the calculation is a recommendation for the judge on how to proceed (e.g. imposing house arrest , drug tests , ankle shackles, etc. instead of bail). Imprisonment is always recommended in the case of serious offenses (e.g. sexual offenses, robbery, murder, etc.). On January 9, 2018, the governor also introduced a bill in New York so that bail no longer has to be required for minor offenses and non-violent offenses. Similar considerations are being made by the Atlanta Attorney's Office.

The main critics of these changes are the bond agents , who benefit from the provision of bail.

Bailiffs

Bail office in Indianapolis, USA

The majority of the accused cannot raise the bail themselves. This is how the profession of bail bondsman ( bail bond agent ) emerged in the USA . For a fee of approx. 10–15% of the deposit amount, he will bring the deposit to court. The terms bail stand for deposit and bond for guarantee, that is, the bond agent guarantees the deposit, e.g. B. in the form of a bank guarantee.

Technically, the deposit is made as follows:

  • The judge determines the amount of the deposit.
  • In prison, the defendant has the right to limited telephone calls. This includes calls to:
    • a relative who organizes everything, or
    • a lawyer or
    • a bail agent (the local bail agent's advertising stickers can be found next to the phone in the prison or in the local branch telephone directory ).

The agent may ask for additional collateral such as a vehicle registration document, real estate, or borrower's note from a relative. He will get the number of a close relative or friend who will have to pay the fee for his services in advance. Only then will he provide the bail in the form of a bank guarantee in court.

A normal bank would not borrow deposits because of the risk. Therefore, bond offices have been given special rights by law to reduce this risk. The bond agent has the right to determine the whereabouts of his customer. He may arrest him - if necessary by force. Therefore, the bond agent needs a license to exercise his activity and is subject to professional regulations. Depending on the risk assessment, the bailiff will demand that the accused appear in the agent's office every day, for example, or that he also calls in order to convince the agent that he has not fled.

However, many bail agents also refuse to bail certain suspects, such as traveling gangs of shoplifters.

For people in need, a system of depositing bail was tried in places by the public sector, but was rejected again.

A distinction is made depending on the size of the company

  • the self-employed bail agent with his own office,
  • the subcontractor who provides the security deposits on behalf of a general bond agent, and
  • the small business owner who, with no credit, only uses his own cash, to make the deposits.

It is estimated that there were around 15,000 such bond offices in 2018.

Go into hiding before the main hearing

If the summoned accused does not appear at the main hearing despite bail (which is an additional criminal offense), it is called a skipping bail or jumping bail . The court then issues an arrest warrant and sets the date on which the bail is due to the state. The bail agent must pay the guaranteed deposit to the court by this expiry date. He can then also sell the additional securities that he has requested from the defendant. However, he is not allowed to keep any additional proceeds from this.

Bounty hunter

Since the bail deposited by the bail agent expires after a set period if the defendant does not show up, he has a keen interest in finding the fugitive soon. Either he himself try to find him or hired a so-called bounty hunter (ger .: bounty hunter ). A bounty hunter is a private contractor who receives his assignments and fees from the bail agent. So that a bounty hunter can work more effectively than any other private person, he has certain special rights. For example, he is allowed to pretend to be another person in order to obtain information about the whereabouts of the fugitive through deception. However, the bounty hunter is personally liable for any property damage during arrest. The laws of the different US states differ in terms of rights and obligations.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Developed by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation . Data on 750,000 legal cases was collected, evaluated and criteria derived from it, which should be based on the age of the accused, previous convictions and imprisonments and failure to appear in court. Ethnicity should expressly not be taken into account as a criterion, but this is already doubted. See also: Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions (COMPAS) an algorithm that is used in courts in the USA and that uses 137 characteristics to calculate a probability of whether offenders will relapse or not and have been criticized.
  2. ↑ Stephen M. Harnik in Get Out of Jail Free , Anwalt Aktuell 1/18, p. 16 f.
  3. ↑ Stephen M. Harnik in Get Out of Jail Free , Anwalt Aktuell 1/18, p. 17.
  4. ^ Bail Bond Agents criminal.findlaw.com
  5. ↑ Stephen M. Harnik: Get Out of Jail Free. In: Anwalt Aktuell 1/18, p. 17. Retrieved on April 8, 2018 .