November 25th 2018 Newsletter
Defendants or Meal Tickets?
And a 73% Failure to Appear Rate on the Arraignment Docket
The criminal justice system is a mess in Oklahoma, no doubt about that. Crime is up, we have more career criminals than at any time in our history, and more and more private and non profit companies have their snout in the trough and are making money off both the taxpayer and the criminals.
It used to be that breaking the law cost you money. After arrest you had to come up with bond money, 10% of what your bond was set at by the judge. The bread and butter of the bail industry was the $5000.00 appearance bond, costing the defendant $500.00 with the bondsman risking $5000.00 that he could keep track of the defendant and see him appear in court. Then the lawyer wanted a retainer of course and generally you are looking at several thousand dollars for a minor offense on up to tens of thousands of dollars for serious charges that might lead to an actual trial. Then after the conviction there are hundreds if not thousands of dollars in fines and fees paid to the court system.
The majority of criminals down at the local jail are being held for trial and are unable to pay a bond. Not a lot of people in the lower class and working class will have bail money sitting in a bank somewhere so the majority have co signers with a house or other assets as collateral. It sounds harsh for grandma to put up her home as security but it does ensure that the rest of the family is looking out for her interests and are working to make sure the defendant goes to court hearings. The same goes for lawyers, many are taking payment plans as few have that kind of money sitting in the bank.
No doubt, crime is big business. We spend about a half billion per year incarcerating prisoners, between a few thousand for someone out on parole or a deferred sentence up to $78,000 per year for the worst of the worst in a maximum security prison.
There has been a movement on the last five or ten years, or at least it has accelerated in the last five or ten years, to eliminate private bail bondsmen and private attorneys through the use of OR bonds, Own Recognizance bonds and pre trial release programs.
OR bonds are simply where a defendant promises to show up in court. If he skips town, no one is looking for them, no one has any skin in the game. Eventually they might get picked up on another crime and be returned to face judgment. This sort bond makes sense for a person with deep roots in the community, someone sure to appear, then again if they run society isn't sure of getting them back to face judgment.
Pre trial release programs are generally private or non profit programs that the court gives permission for them to watch over a defendant, provide services, and attempt to get the defendant back to court dates. These are rarely if ever free, it can cost a defendant as much as $300.00 per month to be out on pre trial release.
Some pre trial release conditions make sense, constant drug testing, counseling, anger management programs, but all cost the defendant and sometimes the bills pile up. It is not unusual for a defendant to be in debt to the pre trial release program to the tune of thousands of dollars and when the do not pay the PTR notifies the court and a warrant is issued to revoke the defendant's bail.
Then there are the economics of the deal, paying $500.00 in private bail up front versus paying $100.00 per month for months on end while waiting for trail. It is not unusual for defendants to have to waive the speedy trial rules and wait over a year while waiting for a trial.
Worse, many of these PTR programs impose community service as part of their requirements. You are basically “hired” out to a private business or government program to do labor. And it isn't just defendants awaiting trial, many of the suspended sentences or deferred sentences come with the requirement to participate in these post conviction programs that monitor your life. The PTR program benefits handsomely hiring out labor or charging the “client” $10.00 per hour for each hour of public service not performed. Generally 100 hours of community service are added as a condition of a suspended or deferred sentence, a $1000.00 bonus for the PTR company.
Many of the suspended or deferred sentences come with the requirement of two, even three years monitoring by one of these PTR companies. It adds to the burden of paying the court fines and fees, which can be set as low as $10.00 per month but are generally around $40.00 to $50.00 per month.
The PTR companies can be private businesses like the Oklahoma Court Services company or “non profits” like the TEEM program ran by former Speaker Kris Steele. And the non profits can generate hundreds of thousands in additional funding through donations and grants from various government program.
But the profit motive and the desire to build their empire means that the cost of these programs are ever increasing. Look at the TEEM data below showing the amount coming from the defendants. IT went from a modest $55,000 per year average take from the defendants in 2012 and 2013, dropping to ony $30,000 per year in 2014, then skyrocketed to ten to fifteen times that amount in 2015, and up to 16 to 28 times that amount in 2016.
What you are seeing is being sold as making it easier for ex cons to re enter society or defendants avoiding losing everything while awaiting trial. It comes at a huge cost though, indentured service to a non profit or private company and thousands of dollars in fees over the cost had the defendant simply paid private bond.
But what is the impact on failure to appear rates and the number of crimes committed while awaiting trail? We all know of the huge rate of failure to appear on immigration charges, upwards of 70% of the released illegal immigrants never show up for their court hearings. There are around one million deportation orders already unfilled and we are adding around 25,000 new cases every year thanks to the lack of bail for immigration cases. By comparison, state court felonies average around 30%, three out of ten do no appear in court both those out on bail and out through OR or pre trial release. When you consider just the OR and PTR the rates skyrocket.
Oklahoma City failure to appear rates from the PTR and OR programs are more than that. Looking at one arraignment sheet from ONE judge for one day, October 24d, we have four PTR defendants and all four refused to appear in court at their arraignment. Keep in mind that everyone that walks in off the street at arraignment is going to walk right back out again as it is just a reading of the charges.
The day before on October 23rd three our of four PTR defendants refused to show up.
Skipping a few weeks forward we have November the 16th where 4 or the 7 PTR defendants showed up.
Those three days averaged 11 out of 15 PTR defendants not showing up for court or a 73% failure to appear rate. Looking at the link a few paragraphs above this is not out of the ordinary for Pre Trial Release programs.
And what is the cost to the criminal justice system for each failure to appear? Studies put the cost between $1200.00 and $1700.00 per failure to appear as court time is wasted, costs are incurred for issuing new arrest warrants, and defendants are charged with additional criminal charges for failing to appear.
The problem is more than just this one issue, PTR defendants refusing to show up for court. Another huge problem are the massive numbers of arrests that have no charges filed, and indication of either sloppy police work or the District Attorney turning loose hundreds of criminals each month. We will cover that in another upcoming story.
