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Comment by dogma1138 | Hacker News Reader

And do you think the bondsmen don’t have an incentive to keep the status quo?

It’s a multi billion dollar industry which effectively taxes the poor.

Make bounties illegal and it fill fall, once it falls the entire bail system in the US will have to be rethought as there isn’t a way to lock so many people up, more judges will release them until trial without setting a bail which they can already legally do and do so for minor offenses.

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Bounty hunters are not universal. For example, here in Oregon they are illegal.

There is also no private bail in Oregon afaik, but I think only 5 states or so are like that.

Yep, we set a bond, and you can pay 10% to the court to bail yourself out. If you skip, the sheriff is the one who will come for you. Though in practice most people are released on their own recognizance, no bond is set except for serious cases.

Also, Oregon doesn't just outlaw bounty hunters as part of our own process, we outlaw them altogether. Bounty hunting is classified as kidnapping.

While there are many things Oregon could do better, there are a whole bunch of things, like this, which I think we are absolutely right on.

You're putting the cart before the horse; until you change the government and thus the bail system, we need bondsman. Making bounties illegal won't stop judges from setting bails people can't afford and is thus not a valid solution.

Very dumb argument. There is no cart and there is no horse. Eliminate the bail system and something has to fill the void.

I remember seeing one in LA. I thought it was fake! Like a tourist attraction.

There are several states with no private bail including Oregon and Massachusetts somehow I doubt that offenders in those states are worse off.

In a country where judges are elected a multi billion dollar has a lot of power in determining how bail is set by the courts.

If you think that judges that get donations from bondsmen don’t take that into account when setting bail you are very naive.

This is the exact same problem as private prisons the justice system should not be monetized for profit.

You finally explained a mystery to me why growing up in Oregon, I've never seen a bailbond place with its flashy neon signs and general run-down areas outside of courthouses. Something I became fairly familiar with moving around California.

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