The States and Nations Policy Summit of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) was held in Washington, DC last week and featured a breakout session on the post conviction bond. The session was held on December 3rd 2009. The panel was moderated by Rep. Jerry Madden, TX. Other panel participants were Dennis Bartlett, Executive Director of the American Bail Coalition, Gene Newman, Vice President of Accredited, South Dakota Rep. Dan Lederman, SD, who is a bondsman, and Georgia Rep. Len Walker.
It was a sellout session with a standing room only audience of legislators. Bartlett gave a general history and update of the Post Conviction Bond issue. Gene Newman recounted the Mississippi bill’s enactment and how it worked in practice from the perspective of the bonding industry. Rep. Lederman recounted his experiences in trying to get the post conviction bond enacted in South Dakota, how it went through the house, senate committee, and was killed on the floor of the senate and his tussles with corrections and probation. Rep. Walker posed Georgia constitutional impediments to the enactment of the post conviction bond. He said that the senate will introduce a bill which will try to finesse Post Conviction Bond usage. He focused his remarks on the passage of GA H 306 which deals with the pretrial phase in which a GPS provider has to be the surety (and a licensed bondsman) for a defendant.
This is a huge victory for the bail industry. We send out a big “Thank You” to ALEC for championing our issues. We will continue to monitor the post conviction bond bill and provide updates as they happen. Please feel free to contact us with any questions whatsoever, [email protected]. For more information on ALEC, visit www.alec.org.
