Category Archives: Bail in America

AIA Congratulates PBT on a Successful Annual Conference

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Last week, the AIA team attended the Annual Conference of the Professional Bondsmen of Texas. This year’s conference took place at the beautiful La Cantera Resort in San Antonio. In addition to great conference presentations and informative curriculum, there were the traditional events including a golf tournament, a welcome reception and a casino-themed event, capped off by the ever famous PBT auction. As always, these events were first class in every way. We take our hats off to PBT for a job well done. Here are some highlights from day one sessions:

The Keynote speaker was William “Pete” Rearden. He gave a presentation called, “Oops…Your Attitude is Showing.” He is a motivational speaker/comedian that talked about how our attitudes affect our performance, lives and work. He focused on the power of positive thinking. He also talked about the difference between leadership and management, and the importance of communication.

PBT presented a brief presentation on health insurance programs that are available for small businesses.

Roger Moore did a session on the difference between employees and independent contractors. He helped the audience determine if those working in their offices should be classified as employees or independent contractors by going through a list of determining factors that need to be considered.

Mark Holtschneider from Lexington National did a presentation on Immigration Bonds. He focused on the risks involved in writing these types of bonds, the requirements and rules, and also the underwriting expectations. He also reviewed the necessary forms that are involved in writing immigration bonds.

Town Hall Meeting- Scott Walstead provided updates to the attendees on legislative matters and specific hot topics in the bail industry. After the meeting, members were asked to mark the items that were most important to them so that the PBT could determine where their focus should be in the upcoming year. The upcoming Be An Angel event was also discussed

• Davie Westmoreland of Texas Quick Bail – PBT Bondsman of the Year

• Glenn Strickland of A1 Bonding – PBT Award of Excellence

• Doc Dillard of Doc’s Bail Bonds – PBT President’s Award

• Ken Good – PBT President’s Award

Outgoing PBT President, John McCluskey, also received a special award from incoming President, Scott Walstead, recognizing John’s contributions and leadership over the past four years. The entire AIA Family of Companies would like to extend our warmest congratulations to everyone who was honored. We are especially proud of our own AIA agents that continue to play a valuable leadership role in PBT. PBT is a great organization and it is made greater by all of the individuals that participate and contribute their time, money, and passion for the benefit of the bail profession.

We would also like to congratulate those individuals who have stepped up and taken on responsibilities for the PBT as its new officers. This includes the following individuals:

• President- Scott Walstead

• Vice President- Davie Westmoreland

• Secretary- Judy Grandmaison-Warren

• Treasurer- Melinda Webb

• Parliamentarian- Eddie Dees

Directors: Marge Walstead, John McCluskey, Glenn Strickland, Bo Jones, Ken Good, Ronnie Long, Alicia Davis

We look forward to another year of great things coming out of the PBT and to working closely with this new leadership team of real bail professionals. Congratulations to everyone.

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FREE BAIL BONDS: Good for Monopoly, but Not Good in Real Life

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The first thing most people think about when they hear the phrase “Get out of jail free” is the game of Monopoly. But unfortunately, that fond childhood memory and association is being replaced by the inadequacies of government sponsored pretrial release programs. I recently read a great article (click here to read the article) by Dr. David Muhlhausen of the Heritage Foundation, discussing how Pretrial Service Agencies are able to tap into the $357 million provided through the Edward Byrne Justice Assistance Grant Program.

These grants are also tapped into by local police departments. As you would expect, these local police departments are required to provide documentation around annual performance measures describing how their programs are doing. Just as any business would operate, you invest money in a product or a division, you track performance and then make a determination of how to improve the product or process or discontinue it. So far so good, right? Well, here comes the kicker. Unlike the accountability and tracking required by local police departments, Pretrial Service Agencies have no requirement for reporting performance results. Yep, that is what I said, go ahead and read that last sentence a second and a third time. PRETRIAL SERVICE AGENCIES ARE NOT REQUIRED TO REPORT PERFORMANCE RESULTS. Almost makes you want to go out and start a pretrial service office doesn’t it?

In a time of economic depression (oh I’m sorry, I mean recession) across the country and what seems to be a never ending cycle of joblessness, how can our tax dollars be distributed so carelessly with no accountability? How can our elected officials continue to support an entity that doesn’t report results because those results would be so poor that they would look even more foolish than they already do? How can our state and local governments continue to support a government entity that substantially underperforms compared to a more efficient, effective and proven private sector approach (commercial bail)? These are questions that continue to baffle me and everyone I know both in and outside the bail bond profession.

While we continue to be amazed by the ineptitude of the thinking (or lack of it all together) that goes into these programs, there is a ray of hope on the horizon. Representative Ted Poe (R-TX) has sponsored a bill that would require Pretrial Service Agencies that receive any federal taxpayer funding to report their results. These are outlined specifically in the Muhlhausen article. I hope you join us in supporting this new Act (HR 1885) and encourage your own state representatives to do the same.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

via Behind the Paper with Brian Nairin: FREE BAIL BONDS: Good for Monopoly, but Not Good in Real Life.

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