GAPB’s Spring Conference was held from May 18-20, 2010 at the Westin Hotel in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
The meeting was opened by President Jared Skelton. Bail agent Scott Hall led a discussion of the new sheriff’s office fee schedule. Sheriff’s service fees across Georgia doubled this year for most services including “taking bonds in criminal cases” which increased to $20.00. A handout of the new fee schedule was provided. The second subject discussed was a Court of Appeals case involving a defendant who was bailed from jail under a false identity. The judgment in favor of the bonding company was appealed by the State, but the Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the bonding company. A handout was provided summarizing the Court of Appeals decision. Speculation in the room was the appeal was driven by the county’s desire to collect and retain the bond forfeiture money which in this case was $66,000.00.
Scott Hall continued to lead the discussion which moved to HB 889. This bill lists 16 offenses in which a defendant may not be released using a pretrial service agency. This bill has passed through both houses of the Georgia legislature but has not been signed by the governor. Passage of this bill is a major coup for a state association. Scott Hall gave credit to everybody who contributed to the effort, ranging from ALEC to individual GAPB members. During this discussion, a video produced by GAPB was presented, A Matter of Public Safety, which included news reports from 2003, 2006 and 2009 that are very critical of pretrial release programs in Atlanta. Their second video, Examples of Abuse, profiles criminal defendants released through pretrial services by illustrating robbers, murderers and rapists on a dark playground. AIA Regional Account Manager Ed Sheppard discussed the association of the Palm Beach, Florida’s approach to combating pretrial service agencies. His comments were favorably received and the members discussed the logistics of mimicking the Palm Beach methods. The open discussion of HB 889 continued until lunch.
In the afternoon, Mike Whitlock spoke regarding bail issues in other parts of the United States. Various states discussed included Colorado, Oregon, Indiana, Virginia, Missouri, Tennessee and Minnesota. He also discussed Philadelphia. There was a handout about Philadelphia; a reprint of the series from The Philadelphia Inquirer titled “Justice: Delayed, Dismissed, Denied”.
The afternoon closed with an emotional slide presentation from Scott Hall detailing his trip to Africa to help build “care-points” to provide for the incredibly impoverished people of Swaziland. The purpose of the presentation was to encourage the GAPB as a group and each member individually to contribute toward a charitable cause. He stressed that we should all do a better job highlighting efforts we make to help others outside the bail industry.
The agenda for the following morning was “Business Meeting”. Highlights included a discussion of improving the GAPB website, improving communication from the officers of the association and improving the phone system. The dates for the fall meeting were set for November 16-18 at the Hyatt in Savannah. The Fall meeting is always the biggest meeting of the year since it coincides with the Georgia Sheriff’s Association meeting held in the same hotel. The last item of business was nomination of officers and directors for the election in November. The nominations will stay open for 60 days.