The United States is one of only two countries in the world that permits private, for-profit bail operations… and where there’s profit, there’s political spending.
In recent years, the bail bond industry, a decentralized ecosystem of companies and agents increasingly underwritten by major multinational insurance companies, has been flexing its muscle to oppose reform attempts; for example, Maryland recently tried to ban cash bail but ultimately settled for a reduction after well-funded pushback from the industry.
In this report, funded by the Rockefeller Family Fund, the National Institute on Money in Politics looks at how the sprawling bail bond industry has sought to influence state-level politics from 2009 through 2017.1
Findings include:
- The industry spent $6.4 million lobbying state lawmakers, and an additional $1.8 million in direct contributions to state campaigns.
- California and Florida, perennial top targets for industries involved in criminal justice, accounted for 36 percent of all dollars contributed by the bail bond industry and 47 percent of all its lobbying spending.
- The trade group American Bail Coalition was the top spender in the industry, shelling out more than $1.5 million since 2009, mostly on lobbying.
- The bail bond industry gave more state-level contributions in 2017 than it had in any other odd-year election.
Figure 1: Bail Bond Industry Political Spending, By Type, 2009-2017
https://public.tableau.com/profile/nimsp#!/vizhome/BailBondIndustryPoliticalSpendingByType2009-2017/Dashboard1
Note: The number of states in which the Institute collected data on money spent lobbying doubled in 2012, therefore lobbying data prior to 2012 is excluded from this chart to avoid the appearance of an arbitrary spike in spending.
The private prison industry figures prominently into the equation, see Private Prisons: Principally Profit-Oriented and Politically Pliable.
Contributions From the Bail Bond Industry
Since 2009, the bail bond industry has directly contributed $1.8 million to state campaigns. The top contributor was Two Jinn Corporation DBA Aladdin Bail Bonds, which operates in seven states. The trade group American Bail Coalition and its member companies spent a total of $174,950 on state campaigns.
*Member companies of the American Bail Coalition
Unlike private prisons and prison service companies, the bail bond industry gives more to candidates than to party committees: 77 percent of its contributions since 2009 have gone directly to candidates.
California and Florida were the top two state recipients of bail industry contributions, accounting for 36 percent of all dollars given since 2009. The industry gave politically in 29 states, averaging almost $63,000 per state.
Figure 2: Bail Bond Industry Contributions, Top 2 States, 2009-2017
The bail bond industry was strategic and successful in its giving: 72 percent of its candidate contributions went to incumbents and 80 percent to candidates who won their race.
In another contrast to both prison and prison service companies, the bail bond industry was much more focused on giving to legislative candidates; more than 80 percent of all its candidate contributions went to candidates for state house or senate, and these same types of candidates also dominated the top individual recipients.
*Won across multiple years
In general, the bail bond industry did not spend on ballot measures. The one exception was in 2014, when three companies — Two Jinn Corporation DBA Aladdin Bail Bonds, Lexington National Insurance, and Albert Ramirez Bail Bonds — gave a total of $75,900 to oppose Proposition 47 in California, which reduced certain drug and property offenses from a felony to a misdemeanor sentence. Proposition 47 passed.
Lobbying Spending
Since 2009, the bail bond industry spent $6.4 million lobbying in 10 of the 20 states where the Institute has data.2 The industry also hired 329 lobbyists across 33 states during this time period.3
The trade group American Bail Coalition was the top lobbying spender, spending half again as much as the next highest, Accredited Surety & Casualty. The bulk of this $1.5 million was spent in California and New York.
Figure 3: Bail Bond Industry Political Spending, 2009-2017
https://public.tableau.com/profile/nimsp#!/vizhome/BailBondIndustryPolitialSpending2009-2017/Dashboard1
Appendix A: Companies Examined in the Report
To view a listing of bail bond companies that gave during the time period covered in this report, click here.
Appendix B: Bail Bond Client/Lobbyist List
The list of lobbyists was compiled by downloading the Institute’s 50-state list of state-registered lobbyists (available at http://www.followthemoney.org/lobbyist-link) and identifying clients coded as bail bond industry. The resulting dataset is summarized in the table below; the full file can be downloaded here.
Unternehmen | Years | States | Number of Lobbyists |
---|---|---|---|
Accredited Surety & Casualty | 2009-2017 | CO, CT, FL | 82 |
AIA Surety | 2011 | OK | 1 |
Al Estes Bonding Agency | 2013-2014 | FL | 2 |
Aladdin Bail Bonds (Two Jinn Corp) | 2009-2017 | ID, NM, UT | 39 |
Allegheny Casualty International Fidelity Associated Bond | 2014-2016 | CO | 3 |
All-Pro Bail Bonds | 2015-2016 | CA | 8 |
American Bail Coalition | 2009-2017 | AL, CA, CO, DE, IN, NJ, NY, OK, OR, PA, SD, UT, WI, WV | 234 |
American Surety Co | 2009-2011; 2013-2017 | CO, CT, IN | 13 |
Arkansas Professional Bail Association | 2009-2016 | AR | 33 |
Association of Louisiana Bail Underwriters | 2009-2017 | LA | 26 |
Bad Boys Bail Bonds | 2010-2016 | CA | 7 |
Bail USA | 2009-2015 | CO, CT, NJ, PA, SD | 28 |
Bail World DBA Bradys Bail Bonds | 2013-2014 | FL | 3 |
Bama Bail Bonds | 2012, 2014 | AL | 2 |
Bondfactor Co | 2010-2011, 2013-2014 | NY | 19 |
Burns, Cheryl L | 2009 | SD | 1 |
California Bail Agents Association | 2010-2012, 2015-2016 | CA | 5 |
Delaware Bail Association | 2013-2017 | DE | 5 |
Financial Casualty & Services | 2011-2017 | FL, MD, TX | 26 |
Freedom Bonding LLC | 2009-2013 | MO | 11 |
Georgia Association of Professional Bondsmen | 2013 | GA | 1 |
Golden State Bail Agents Association | 2010-2016 | CA | 7 |
Greater Washington Bail Bond Association | 2012 | MD | 1 |
International Fidelity Insurance Co | 2009, 2013-2017 | NJ | 12 |
Kansas Bail Agents Association | 2012-2016 | KS | 5 |
Kansas Professional Bail Bondsman Association | 2009-2011 | KS | 3 |
Knowles, Johnny | 2013-2014 | TN | 2 |
Lexington National Insurance | 2014-2017 | CO, CT, FL, MD, PA | 32 |
Madrid, Tony G | 2013-2015 | NM | 3 |
Maryland Bail Bond Association | 2009-2017 | MD | 44 |
Mississippi Bail Agents Association | 2009-2015 | MS | 9 |
National Association of Surety Bond Producers | 2011-2017 | MA, MD, NM, NV, VA | 15 |
North Carolina Bail Agents Association | 2009-2017 | NC | 23 |
Palmetto Surety Corp | 2014, 2016-2017 | FL, SC | 6 |
Pioneer Bail Agents Association | 2012 | CO | 3 |
Professional Bail Agents of Colorado | 2010-2015 | CO | 7 |
Professional Bail Agents of Idaho | 2010-2016 | ID | 12 |
Professional Bondsmen of Texas | 2009-2017 | TX | 14 |
Professional Probation Services | 2014-2017 | GA, UT | 14 |
Quick Bonding | 2015 | NM | 1 |
Roche Surety & Casualty | 2014-2015, 2017 | AL, FL | 4 |
Sebring, Leslie W (Les) | 2009-2016 | IN | 10 |
South Carolina Bail Agents Association | 2009-2017 | SC | 20 |
Sun Surety Insurance Co | 2011, 2013-2017 | CO, SD | 10 |
Tennessee Association Of Professional Bail Agents | 2009-2017 | TN | 18 |
Triton Management Services | 2014-2017 | CA, ID, OR, TN, UT | 35 |
Two Jinn Corp | 2009-2017 | CA, ID, OR, WA | 42 |
United Surety Agents | 2009-2016 | IN | 12 |
Utah Bail Enforcement Association | 2013-2017 | UT | 4 |
Wachinski, Nicholas J (Nick) | 2014-2015, 2017 | IN, PA | 3 |
Washington State Bail Agents Association | 2009-2017 | WA | 12 |
Williams National Surety Corp | 2012 | CO | 2 |
- 1. All contributions and lobbying expenditure data is current with the FollowTheMoney.org database as of May 17, 2018. Additional spending data may be available at FollowTheMoney.org when collection of 2017 reports is complete.
- 2. The number of states in which the Institute collected data on money spent lobbying doubled in 2012.
- 3. For the purposes of this report, “number of lobbyists” refers to a relationship with a client in one year and one state. A person who is hired across multiple states in one year, or in one state in multiple years, is therefore counted multiple times in order to provide an accurate measure of the company’s lobbying presence across states and years. A full counting and list of these lobbyists is available for download in Appendix A. The Institute has lobbyist registration data in all 50 states.
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