Last year in Wisconsin, $9.5 million in bail money from criminals was used to compensate their victims and help run the state’s legal system. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says that money would be put at risk under a proposed private bail bond system, according to judges and clerks of courts.
Under a private bail bond proposal included in the state budget, the county could receive nothing from the defendant directly and just 3 percent of the bail from a bondsman, who would take responsibility for paying the rest of the bail if the defendant doesn’t show up. Under the bail bondsman provision tucked into the state budget bill this month by Republicans, a defendant would pay 10 percent of his or her bail to the bondsman, who would keep this money as his fee.