Panel eyes ways to collect bail bucks in Philadelphia

Members of a state Senate panel yesterday heard a host of ideas to improve the city's bail-collection system - including using private bondsmen to chase after the money, and providing alternatives to cash bail.

About $1 billion in bail is owed to the city, and 47,000 bench warrants are outstanding for fugitives who failed to come to court.

Common Pleas President Judge Pamela Pryor Dembe yesterday told the Judiciary Committee at a public hearing in Center City that the $1 billion figure is "mythical" because it is, for the most part, uncollectible.

She testified that the Clerk of Quarter Sessions office - which before April operated independently from the courts - failed to aggressively pursue bail collection.

Most of the money is uncollectible because the defendants have died, the clerk's office did not keep accurate records of addresses or the statute of limitations to collect the debt has passed.

The oldest bail debt was determined to date from 1943.

When asked by state Sen. Michael Stack, D-Northeast Philadelphia, how much of the $1 billion could be collected if the court system had all the resources it needed, Dave Wasson, chief deputy court administrator, estimated 2 to 3 percent, or $20 million to $30 million.

Dembe, Jodi Lobel, chief of the district attorney's charging unit, and Stuart Schuman, chief of the Municipal Court unit in the public defenders' office, told the senators that they did not think it would be a good idea to have private bail bondsmen operating extensively in the city again.

Dembe said the city had moved away from that system because of "corruption [and] physical abuse."

Brian J. Frank, president of Lexington National Insurance Corp., the only insurance company now underwriting bail bonds in criminal cases after the city placed high barriers to do such business here, testified that the business is different today from the 1960s - when corruption was the norm.

His company operates locally through ABC Bail Bonds, in Morrisville, Bucks County. The bondsmen working for insurance companies are licensed and face oversight, he said.

Stanley Orlin, a former bail bondsman, testified that the courts system is not motivated to go after someone who owes money, but a bondsman is motivated because his own money is on the line.

Lobel told the senators that "criminals are incentivized to skip court because there are no consequences when they do so."

She said that the way things are in Philadelphia, "whoever put up the initial 10 percent" of bail to get someone out of jail "will almost never be held accountable for the remaining 90 percent."

She said the financial resources of a family member or friend putting up bail money for a defendant should be reviewed to see if he or she can pay the full amount, if needed. She also suggested that more resources go toward hiring warrant officers to go after known and high-risk fugitives.

Schuman said alternatives, such as drug- and alcohol-treatment programs for nonviolent offenders, should be considered instead of only cash bail at a defendant's preliminary arraignment.