By Michael Hill
Correspondent
“Terrible. Almost non-existent,” said Ron Olszowy, president of Nationwide Bail Bonds.
That’s how Olszowy describes the bail bond industry in New Jersey. He has walls of photographs and letters and awards to show how long his Nationwide Bail Bonds company has been in business — 45 years. Olszowy says criminal bail bonds made up 75 to 80 percent of his business until Jan. 1 when bail reform began in the state.
New Jersey instituted bail reform largely because poor defendants would spend months in jail before trial or would feel pressured into pleading guilty simply because they couldn’t afford even a couple hundred dollars for bail. Now, the criminal justice system assesses a defendant’s risk of committing more crime and risk of failing to appear in court if released.
“I think that’s the great benefit by this is that you’re removing a monetary bail, which all of the studies that have been shown to us since we’ve been pursuing this shows that it really doesn’t result in more people coming to court than it does otherwise. So you’re taking something out that was shown to be ineffectual anyway,” said Essex Public Defender Bill Fitzsimmons.
Bail can still be imposed in some cases, but the State’s Administrative Office of the Courts tells NJTV News not one has from Jan. 1 to yesterday. That’s left the industry reeling.
“So far its been devastating. I think a lot of companies haven’t written a single bond in the new year. You’re going to be seeing companies going out of business here quite soon,” said Policy Director of the American Bail Coalition Jeff Clayton.
Under the new system what kind of criminal bonds is Olszowy writing?
“Failure to appear, failure to pay fines which are bonds we might not have entertained or we would but we entertain them more readily now because of the income,” he said.
And Olszowy says his company is aggressively marketing the writing of civil bonds.
“Administration bonds, guardianship bonds, probate bonds, license and permit bonds,” he said.
The bail bond industry says it’s not throwing in the towel. It has a bill or two moving through the legislature that would revise the reforms.
“It would restore the business, maybe not to what it would be,” said Olszowy.
Olszowy predicts bail reform will fail for several reasons and the state’s coffers will miss the tax revenue from writing bonds.
“A typical political move. They add an expense to the state and throw away profit,” he said.
Advocates of bail reform say it was also meant to take the profit out of punishing the poor in a system that prides itself on the notion of innocent until proven guilty.