What he does, which is posting bail for people accused of crimes in exchange for a fee, is all but unknown in the rest of the world. In England, Canada and other countries, agreeing to pay a defendant%26#8217;s bond in exchange for money is a crime akin to witness tampering or bribing a juror %26#151; a form of obstruction of justice.Mr. Spath, who is burly, gregarious and intense, owns Brandy Bail Bonds, and he sees his clients in a pleasant and sterile office building just down the street from the courthouse here. But for the handcuffs on the sign out front, it could be a dentist%26#8217;s office.%26#8220;I%26#8217;ve got to run, but I%26#8217;ll never leave you in jail,%26#8221; Mr. Spath said, greeting a frequent customer in his reception area one morning a couple of weeks ago. He turned to a second man and said, %26#8220;Now, don%26#8217;t you miss court on me.%26#8221;Other countries almost universally reject and condemn Mr. Spath%26#8217;s trade, in which defendants who are presumed innocent but cannot make bail on their own pay an outsider a nonrefundable fee for their freedom. %26#8220;It%26#8217;s a very American invention,%26#8221; John Goldkamp, a professor of criminal justice at Temple University, said of the commercial bail bond system. %26#8220;It%26#8217;s really the only place in the criminal justice system where a liberty decision is governed by a profit-making businessman who will or will not take your business.%26#8221; Although the system is remarkably effective at what it does, four states %26#151; Illinois, Kentucky, Oregon and Wisconsin %26#151; have abolished commercial bail bonds, relying instead on systems that require deposits to courts instead of payments to private businesses, or that simply trust defendants to return for trial.Most of the legal establishment, including the American Bar Association and the National District Attorneys Association, hates the bail bond business, saying it discriminates against poor and middle-class defendants, does nothing for public safety, and usurps decisions that ought to be made by the justice system.Here as in many other areas of the law, the United States goes it alone. American law is, by international standards, a series of innovations and exceptions. From the central role played by juries in civil cases to the election of judges to punitive damages to the disproportionate number of people in prison, the United States has charted a distinctive and idiosyncratic legal path. Bail is meant to make sure defendants show up for trial. It has ancient roots in English common law, which relied on sworn promises and on pledges of land or property from the defendants or their relatives to make sure they did not flee.America%26#8217;s open frontier and entrepreneurial spirit injected an innovation into the process: by the early 1800s, private businesses were allowed to post bail in exchange for payments from the defendants and the promise that they would hunt down the defendants and return them if they failed to appear. Commercial bail bond companies dominate the pretrial release systems of only two nations, the United States and the Philippines.The flaw in the system most often cited by critics is that defendants who have not been convicted of a crime and who turn up for every court appearance are nonetheless required to pay a nonrefundable fee to a private business, assuming they do not want to remain in jail. %26#8220;Life is not fair, and I probably would feel the same way if I were a defendant,%26#8221; said Bill Kreins, a spokesman for the Professional Bail Agents of the United States, a trade group. %26#8220;But the system is the best in world.%26#8221;The system costs taxpayers nothing, Mr. Kreins said, and it is exceptionally effective at ensuring that defendants appear for court. Mr. Spath%26#8217;s experience confirms that.If Mr. Spath considers a potential client a good risk, he will post bail in exchange for a nonrefundable 10 percent fee. In a 35-month period ending in November, his records show, Mr. Spath posted about $37 million in bonds %26#151; 7,934 of them. That would suggest revenues of about $1.3 million a year, given his fee.Mr. Spath, who is 62, has seven bail agents working for him, including his daughters Tia and Mia. %26#8220;It probably costs me 50 grand a month to run this business,%26#8221; he said.Mr. Spath hounds his clients relentlessly to make sure they appear for court. If they do not, he must pay the court the full amount unless he can find them and bring them back in short order. 1 2 Next Page %26#x00bb;
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