Study of Bail Bond No-Shows

The director, Dr. Robert Morris of Center for Crime and Justice Studies, and a criminologist with UT Dallas, created a research paper that states bail bond companies that are privately owned could have an advantage when getting defendants to show up for all their scheduled court dates.

In this study it was found that those who used a bail bond company were more likely to show up for their court date, compared to pretrial services bonds, attorney bonds or cash bonds. A study was conducted in 2008 where they studied more than 22,000 criminal defendants in Dallas County who were released during that time.

Defendants who are in jail usually have a variety of options to them for jail release before any court hearings are scheduled, to include commercial bonds, attorney bonds or cash bonds.

Any time a defendant does not show up for their court date it costs millions of tax dollars. On average, it costs $1,775 in operational expenses. Twenty-five percent of defendants released in Dallas County failed to show up for their court date, which fluctuated between misdemeanors and felonies.

There are many issues to determine if a defendant will appear in court or even commit another crime in the future. This study was done to find out if the means of release had anything to do with it and what the costs were. The study results initially suggested that the most economical method of release was commercial bail bonds and getting defendants to show up for court, particularly in Dallas County.

Recidivism findings in this study were not as precise. It’s a bit more complicated and timing plays a huge role. For instance, recidivism for misdemeanor or felony defendants on a separate basis there wasn’t any difference in rates between commercial bonds or pretrial services.

The most common method of pre-trail release is commercial bonds. Typically, two-thirds of inmates are released from jail by using a bail bondsman, then cash bonds, pretrial services and attorney bonds.
Morris hopes that the findings of this study will lead to more economical methods for pre-trail release, which play an important role within the criminal justice process. This study simply provided a starting place for data. He would like to take it a step further and conduct the study with updated data and in other jurisdictions. Then maybe we can start to understand why it is that many defendants do not show up for court.

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