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Four News Items
1. Governor signs the Publics’
Right-to-Know Bill.
2. Redirection of Pre-Trial Release
Services
3. Bureau of Justice Report on
Pre-Trial Release
4. Your help is needed to get the Bail
Bond Fairness
Act moving through the US
Senate.
1. The Citizens' Right-to-Know Act/ Pretrial Release
The act requires each pretrial release
program to
Prepare a register displaying information
relevant to
the defendants released through such a
program.
It requires that a copy ofthe register be
located at
the office of the clerk of the circuit court in the
county where the program is located and
readily
accessible to the public. Provides Requirements
for the form of bail or bond required for
release
from detention, etc.
EFFECTIVE DATE: 07/01/2008
For more information click
here.
2. Redirection of Pre-Trial
Release Services
FSAA member Sal Rivas,
Ph.D. and Diana Wilson, Ph.D.
have submitted an article to FSAA for
inclusion in the
next FSAANews. The subject matter deserves
to
be available to the public before the next FSAANews
is on the street. This article
proposes changes to
pre-trial release programs in Miami-Dade
County,
Florida to improve public safety
and reduce
government spending.
Click here to read the
article.
3. The Bureau of Justice Report
A Special
Report titled “Pre-Trial Release of Felony
Defendants in State Courts (State Courts
Processing Statistics
1990 – 2004)” has just
been released. This report is positive
towards the
bail industry and you are
encouraged to read it.
Click here
4. We
need your help!
Please call Matt
Nosanchuk, Legislative Counsel for
Senator Bill Nelson. Telephone number is: 202-224-5274.
For that matter, please have as many folks call and ask
the same question: Will Sen. Nelson sign onto S.2495, the
Bail Bond Fairness Act? Whomever you
speak with (and
please get the name or let FSAA know (fsaa@cox.net)
if it goes to voice mail): you, as a Florida Bail Agent and
as a constituent, you would like to invite Senator Nelson
to sign on as a co-sponsor of S. 2495, the
Bail Bond Fairness Act.
The bill does one
thing and that is to affirm that bail is
about appearance. If a defendant fails to appear, hold
the bail agent accountable, if a defendant violates a
condition of the bond, hold the defendant responsible
and revoke the bond, do not forfeit the bond.
On May 10, 2007 Representative Robert Wexler [FL-19]
sponsored H.R. 2286, a bill to amend Title 18, United
States Code, and the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure
with respect to bail bond
forfeitures. For almost 20 years
federal judges have used the bail bonds as performance
bonds and the purpose of this bill is to make federal bail
bonds only appearance bonds once more.
On December 18, 2007 Senator Joseph Biden (D-DEL)
introduced the bill on the floor of the Senate as S. 2495.
Co-sponsors were Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland,
Democrats and also Sen. Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania
and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
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