Victory! Prop 25 Defeated as Californians Vote to Preserve the Right to Bailbonds

It’s been a long hard slog these past two years in the bail industry, especially where Bail House Bail Bonds worked to overturn SB10, enacted legislation that if put into place, would have eliminated the use of bail in California.  That effort was rewarded on Election Day when more than 6 million Californians and over 300,000 Roseville Bail Bonds voters voted “no” on Prop 25, the referendum to overturn SB10.

Californians for Safer Communities was the machine behind Prop 25. All in, more than 10 million dollars was spent by the bailbonds industry to preserve the right to felony bail and misdemeanor in California. That seems like, and is, a lot of money but well short of the campaign chest held by those in favor of Prop 25. Ultimately, it was the people of Roseville Bail Bonds who were the real popularity in this fight. They rejected the unconstitutional expansion of preventative detention, computer algorithms, and letting offenders walk out of jail without posting Roseville Bail Bonds for misdemeanor dui’s and felony dui’s.

I received a lot of calls and text messages yesterday from bails bond agents across California offering thanks and appreciation for this feat. A win that will keep Roseville Bail Bonds in business and able to continue to support their families and employees. I could sense the relief in their voice and in their words. I made sure to inform them it was a broad coalition of surety companies, large retailers, bail agents, and support from around the country that made this happen. While the alliance did not have the financial support of all the surety companies doing bail bond business in California, we played with the team we had and as it turns out, it was enough. You are always going to have those who want to drive in the draft of the efforts of others and then enjoy the rewards and benefits of victory; accept it and move on.

What now? SB10 passed by the smallest of margins in 2018, two years later the people of California and Roseville Bail Bonds have spoken on the issue, hopefully, the state legislature will respect their wishes and not continue to press the issue of removing the use bails bonds. Other states entertaining straining bail reform may now look to California and see that there can be an overpass too far and opt for more reasonable and thoughtful reforms.

One pragmatic reform would be to simply let those who can post bail, post bail, and provide a bail hearing to anyone remaining in custody after 48-72 hours. Sometimes the best solution is the most obvious solution, and don’t try to fix what is already fixed. I equate this victory with Prop 25 to finally locating and arresting a fugitive (the recovery agent, not me personally) on a very large Roseville bail bond forfeiture. This getting done only after having spent an enormous amount of time, effort, money, and don’t forget the fatigue, to see the fugitive arrested and back in custody before the Roseville Bail Bond deadline. Only a bail agent knows the feeling of that kind of relief. Winning against Prop 25 was like that.