bail bonds

[gusl]

Suppose you get arrested. You are released on bail, and eventually exonerated. Do you lose the interest to the bondsman, or does someone else compensate him/her?

If so, then your freedom has a daily price. If the bond is high enough, you might well choose to spend your time in jail.

Comments

[cdtwigg.livejournal.com]

My impression is that they don't charge (compounding) interest but instead take a (fairly exorbitant) flat cut of the bond amount.

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

What if you actually had the $1 million. Does the court invest it?

[mindwalker.livejournal.com]

Freedom definitely has a price. Those who pay taxes already choose not to spend time in jail at a rather high daily price in order to remain free 9at least freer than they would otherwise be).

[peamasii.livejournal.com]

Staying in jail costs society, so it makes sense that the free should pay for the jailed. :-)

[jbouwens.livejournal.com]

Say your bail is set at $10000. You are released from custody upon payment of that amount. Now, REGARDLESS of your being found guilty or not, if you abide by the terms of your bail you will get the $10000 back.

If you have that much money in the bank, you can pay the bail yourself. If you don't, you go to a bondsman who pays the bail for you for a set fee, for example $1000. If you appear in court as required, the bondsman gets his $10000 back, and he keeps the $1000 you paid him. That's a 10% profit in a relatively short amount of time, which makes bonds an attractive investment.

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

In other words, the government is stealing the interest from your money.

[jbouwens.livejournal.com]

That's one way to look at it, yeah :)

Then again, it's a voluntary thing. You _could_ stay in jail. The amounts set for bail are usually not so high that the interest is more than the amount you'd make working.