The Pay Day Loan Scammers of the Criminal Justice System
Lots of people get sucked into pay day loans. Some poor working stiff trying to stand on their own two feet and keep the family with a roof over their head. They get behind, find a pay day loan office that offers cash up front, no credit check, high interest but hey, it is only till the next pay check. Right?
Usually not, life happens, they pay the interest and delay paying on the principle and the pay out on the loan balloons in size. Soon they are in a cycle of debt with no way out as they were on tight finances before they took the “easy” money.
Criminals get arrested and jailed and some of the dumb ones or inexperienced ones wind up in the same deal. The average criminal appearance bond is $4000 to $5000, they have to come up with 10% of that, $400 to $500, or their family or friends come up with the cash. Someone signs a lien against a home or car as security, the money is paid, and all Charlie Felon has to do is show up at court few weeks later and continue to appear in court as his case is adjudicated. If they don't, the bondsman has to chase them down and put them back in jail till their case is over.
The liberals cry “That creates a two tier criminal justice system, those with money get out of jail. Those that are poor stay in jail.” Hardly, most families can come up with $500 on short notice, if the bailee has just made a mistake and is trustworthy. Then there are those families that have been down this road, they know their miscreant isn't going to show up and no need to let grandma loose her house or take out a loan to pay the entire forfeited bond. It is having the family with skin in the game that makes the bail bond system work as the family will help track down Charlie Felon if someone's house is at risk. Then there are those families that can easily afford to bail out Charlie Felon but don't. Charlie Felon is relatively safe in jail and away from cheap drugs and drug dealers. The families do not want their kin bailed out for good reasons.
So do good-ers like Kris Steele are there to save the day with a Pre Trial Release (PTR) Program. They have a paid staffer working with the judges clerk at the arraignments looking for “clients”. The judge sets bail, Charlie Felon freaks out that he needs $500 in cash ASAP, and there is a friendly PTR staffer that will get you out for $50 if you sign this form. Sweet....
Or not as most don't read the forms they sign. They or someone pays the $50.00 and they find out that they are obligated to pay $10.00 per day, another $8.00 if an ankle monitor is needed, fees for drug testing, counseling, plus daily or weekly check in visits at the PTR office.
Do the math, at the end of the month they are out $300.00 in daily fees, plus the initial $50.00, plus several rounds of drug testing even if their crime had nothing to do with drugs. At six weeks they have paid over the $500.00 a bondsman would have charged with no end in sight. Many times cases take six to ten months to adjudicate and Charlie Felon is on the hook at $300.00 per month plus.
Meanwhile the PTR program is raking in hundreds of thousands a year from the court system/county for running the program and many PTR programs are “non profit” so they hit up the liberals for donations.
Here is an article that covered this issue and their poster boy is one Jeremy Brown. Brown was busted on March 17th, 2017 for DUI, obstruction of an officer, open container, no insurance, speeding, driving while under suspension, and assault and battery on a cop. He pled guilty on October 4th 2018, about 19 months later.
To get out of jail on March 22nd 2017, Brown agrees to pay the fees which are not listed in the agreement filed with the court, to phone in each morning to leave a message on an answering machine stating who he is, his date of birth, and what his plans are for the day. Then each Tuesday he is to appear in person between a specific spread or hours to talk to his supervisor. That Tuesday visit is to pay his fees and should he not pay or not show up, back to jail he goes.
We do not know if Brown made a single payment or did a check in but April 17th a warrant was issued for his arrest for not showing up. His new bond is set at $5000. Then it turns out that Brown is a guest in a jail down in Texas so he is put back on the PTR program to earn the liberals some money. By June 7th he has a public defender, is in compliance, then out of compliance, then in compliance again because he was sitting in another jail after being arrested again on other charges.
By August 17th his PTR case is closed with Brown owing $790.00 in fees to the PTR program, in addition to any court fees or fines of course. He has been paying some money along the way in addition to what is owed.
That $500 bond payment was chump change compared to what he has paid at this point. Brown sits in jail.
By October 25th Brown has wised up and hired a professional bondsman and pays the man $500.00 so he can get out of jail and back to work. But his public defender asks to withdraw, if you can pay bail you can pay an attorney according to the law.
So the case winds around and it is March 29th 2018, one year later, when the formal arraignment occurs, followed by preparation for a jury trial. But by August of 2018 Brown decides to plea out. Out of money no doubt, ready to bend over for the prosecutor. By October Brown signs a payment plan for $5677.25 in fines and fees paid at $50.00 per month. In return he gets a five year deferred sentence.
By 2019 Brown is behind and in December of 2019 the Court sends him a letter listing $3083.75 still owed. By the time Covid hit he had paid six to seven hundred dollars and only $100 paid since July of 2020 according to the OSCN record.
Over a year and a half before his case was settled and he pled guilty, times $300.00 a month for basic reporting, plus a phone call every morning and a visit to the PTR office each Tuesday. Had Brown not hired a bondman his bill would have been over $5000 with PTR.
And once he pled guilty he was put on supervision, once again a private company where he paid a lot of money. He did eventually wise up and asked to be supervised by the DOC, usually $40.00 per month.
All these PTR programs are is a race for the money. Criminal defendants are a source of cash for lawyers, bail bonds, “non profits”, and the court system. Once arrested it is a race for their liquid cash. Now the bondman serves a good and noble purpose, he is a private jailer in effect, for a payment of 10% of the bond you get out of jail and back home so you can work and care for family. No other fees to the bondsman. The average bail bond is between four and five thousand so for four to five hundred bucks they are risking ten times that and forfeited bail is their largest expense in that business.
The PTR salesman is that salesman that will sell you a new flat screen TV for only $20.00 down and $20.00 per month for the next five years. And PTR has zero responsibility to the court to chase down those that refuse to show up for court, many don't even have to tell the public, the victims, or the courts who is in their system or if they show up or not. Part of that might be fixed thanks to HB1647 which passed the House in March 85 to 9 votes against, with the liberal supporters of PTR voting against the legislation.
What HB 1647 does is force ALL PTR programs to report to the court as a public record who is in their system, to inform the victim of the crime that the criminal is asking to be released so they have the right to appear and state their case as required by Marcy's Law which is in our State Constitution. The PTR program MUST obtain a background report on each criminal, how many convictions, what for, and if there are any VPO orders out and if any VPO orders have been violated. Then the PTR program must file monthly reports showing how many criminals were considered for the program, their entire criminal background, the number of cases that failed to appear, name, case number, and the criminal charge for each PTR release, and the amount each person was charged for the PTR services.
The most important parts of this are conforming to Marcy's Law so that all victims of violent crime have a right to know that a dangerous criminal is back on the street and so they can have a say in their release, and so that transparency is there for these “non profit” PTR programs and after convictions supervision programs.
This already passed the Senate by a 8
to 1 vote and is headed to the Senate Floor for passage. Please call your Senator and ask for his support on passing this key transparency bill that will give victims notice that their attacker is being released from jail as our State Constitution requires thanks to Marcy's Law.
Below is a list of PTR services in the state of Oklahoma. Notice the bottom one, MAPS funded, taxpayer funded, an arrested criminal pays nothing for bail, nothing for a lawyer, gets their rent, utilities, and groceries paid for and when they refuse to pay a dime for court costs, fines, or supervision fees they go on about their criminal career. There is no cost for committing a crime these days, in fact, crime pays.
