Thank you to everyone who took our 2024 State of Bail Survey and congratulations to the winner of our drawing for $100 Visa Gift Card.
To be honest, the results of the survey were a little surprising as they showed that the majority of bail agents responding to the survey did not have a lot of confidence in the bail profession for 2025. In fact, on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being most confident, the average confidence rating was a meager 2.2 out of 5. The same can be said for the overall health rating of the industry in 2024. Respondents rated the health of the profession an even lower 2 out of 5.
When asked if 2024 was a good year for people’s bail businesses, only 20% of respondents said “yes.” When asked if 2025 was going to be a good year, 40% of the respondents said yes. So even though agents don’t feel very positive about the health of the industry or their confidence in the future, they were still able to muster up a more positive outlook for the bail profession in 2025 than they did in 2024.
Agents were mixed in terms of the things that they would like to see more from their surety, but the one answer that really stood out was that bail agents wanted their surety to provide more assistance in fighting bail reform. In fact, 40% of respondents said so. Other results for things that agents would like to see more from their surety include “wanting more technology offerings” at 10% and wanting more help with growing their business” also at 10%.
Agent/Surety loyalty appears to be strong across the industry. When asked if they had switched sureties in 2024, 80% of respondents said they didn’t and when asked if they planned on switching in 2025, 80% of respondents said they didn’t plan on switching sureties in 2025.
In summary, it appears based on the survey results that the majority of bail agents do not have a lot of confidence around the future of the bail profession. They also appear to want their surety to play a larger role in protecting and defending the bail industry. And lastly, agent/surety loyalty appears to be strong not only in 2024, but also in 2025 as the large majority of agents are not looking to switch sureties.