American Men in Prison: America's Real Fatherhood Crisis

American Fathers in Prison:  America’s Real Parenting Crisis

There are a lot of social commentary in this country every day about the crisis of American fatherhood.  We hear all the time about how terrible it is that so many homes in the U.S. do not have a full-time dad in them.  Blame is placed on the individual man, and the woman who bore his child, instead of looking at the societal factors that take fathers out of the home. One of these is America’s over use of incarceration to punish drug use and other minor, non violent crimes. 

In America today, there are over two million children with a father in jail or prison.  Over ninety percent of parents in prison are fathers.  The number of children with a father in prison has grown 79% since 1991. 

This is terribly adverse on children.  Children with a father incarcerated are likely to experience the criminal justice system and incarceration themselves.  These homes face economic barriers because of a parent being incarcerated and unable to support their children. 

Incarceration for delinquent child support is a feel-good solution that actually prevents men from staying employed and able to pay the delinquent child support. 

What should we do to support fathers and their children who are at risk of experiencing the criminal justice system:

1.        Make job training and education available in more neighborhoods and to more young men;

2.       Make sex education comprehensive and realistic to help more men plan fatherhood;

3.       Make drug rehabilitation and mental health services available and free;

4.       Stop using incarceration to punish low level crimes and non-violent crimes;

5.       Abolish the money bail system to allow more criminal defendants to be released on bond. 

6.       Decriminalize low level drug possession.

7.       Stop incarceration for delinquent child support.

We need to help fathers stay in the home.  Part of this is stopping the cycle of incarceration and allowing men to stay out of jail and at home with their children.

Happy Fathers’ Day!

Personal Bond in Travis County

Personal bond in Travis County:

A personal bond in Travis County is given to defendants whom judges feel they can rely on to return to court to answer the criminal allegations pending and do not pose a grave danger to the public. It requires no deposit. It requires a judge’s approval. Often conditions are imposed on the defendant as a condition of personal bond.

I will talk about release on personal bond here.

If you are arrested in Travis County, in most instances you will automatically be screened for a personal bond by a department in Travis County called Pretrial Services. An officer with Pretrial will come see you in the downtown jail within a few hours of your arrest. They will ask you a series of questions to see if you are a good candidate for personal bond. These include questions about identifying information, address, and employment. They will also ask for references for people they can call to verify the information you can give.

If you are approved by the officers in Pretrial Services for the personal bond, a magistrate judge will sign the bond and you will be released. People without a verified address, people with pending cases, people with extensive criminal history, and people with serious allegations of violence will usually not be approved by Pretrial Services for a personal bond.

You should not refuse the interview with Pretrial Services. You do not have to answer questions about the offense, but you should provide your address, employment, and references. Even if you are not approved for a personal bond by Pretrial, answering the questions and getting the bond process started makes it easier for your lawyer to intervene later.

If you are not approved for a personal bond by Pretrial Services, you may still have a chance to be released on personal bond. To effectuate this, you will need to hire an attorney. Please note: the fee you pay to the attorney to secure your release on personal bond is kept by the attorney. It is not “posted” to the Sheriff’s Department as a cash bond. It is a fee that is charged by the attorney, and usually serves as a down payment for representation on the charge for which you were arrested, to negotiate your release on personal bond. It is not refundable at the end of the case.

Once you hire an attorney, the attorney will get the personal bond paperwork from Pretrial Services. If you have refused the interview, the attorney will have to interview you on an approved bond form. This adds time to the process, which is why you should do the interview with Pretrial Services.

The attorney, with bond paperwork in hand, will then approach a judge to ask the judge to sign the bond, approving you for release on personal bond. There are many judges in Travis County who can sign a bond. If it’s a felony, and it is unindicted, it can go to any criminal district judge or sitting magistrate judge. If it’s a misdemeanor, it can go to any criminal judge in Travis County.

If you are hiring an attorney between 5:00 pm on Friday through the weekend, realize that there is only one duty magistrate who can sign bonds every eight hours. If that judge does not approve the bond, you are going to be waiting until the next judge comes on duty. Often times, you may wait the entire weekend until the regular sitting judges come back on Monday morning.

A judge usually wants to hear several things when deciding whether or not to approve release on a personal bond. The most important things are that you do not pose an ongoing danger to a particular individual or society as a whole and that you will come back to court. A history of bond forfeiture or a long history of violent accusations will heavily weigh against release on personal bond.

A judge who has concerns about the facts of the case or the danger you pose to society may impose conditions on your release. For a DWI, this may include things like ordering you to install an ignition interlock device and to take an alcohol education class. For more serious, violent felony cases, the judge may order you to be on house arrest with an ankle monitor. You have to decide if you are going to agree to these conditions in exchange for release from jail. If you are released from jail with conditions imposed, you must abide by these conditions or risk having your personal bond “revoked” or “motioned off” – ie cancelled – and going back to jail until the case is resolved.

Please note: there is NO SUCH THING as an “attorney signature bond”. No matter how much other inmates may assure you of the existence of such a thing, it is simply not true. Some attorneys can write their own surety bonds, which do not need to be approved by a criminal judge, but the majority of attorneys will only be able to negotiate your release on personal bond by getting it approved by a judge. Therefore, you should understand that hiring an attorney is not a guarantee of release on personal bond. If the accusation or the history is just too bad, you may not get a release on personal bond regardless of your hiring of representation.

The great thing about hiring an attorney to approach a judge to sign a personal bond is that usually the payment you make to an attorney to do this hires the attorney to continue representation on the case after your release. If you already have an attorney, and you want to keep that attorney, do not hire another attorney to “just” do a personal bond. That attorney will be considered by Travis County to be the new attorney on the entire case. You cannot keep an appointed attorney and also hire one to “just” do a personal bond.

Travis County charges a fee to people released on personal bond. Without any devices such as IID or electronic monitor imposed as conditions, the fee is $40 per case. It is a good idea to pay this $40, but your bond will not be revoked if you simply do not have the money to pay it.

I am available to take jail release cases in Travis County. If you have any questions or have a loved one in Travis County jail, call me to see what your options are. My number is also a free call from the jail, and it goes to my cell phone, so if you need jail release at any time I am available to help.

#jail #prbond #pr #personalbond #bond #atx #traviscounty #texas#criminalcase #crime #criminaldefense

Jail Calls: Why You Should Always Watch What You Say

The Walls Have Ears:  Why You Should Limit What You Say in Jail

If someone’s in jail, it is common for s/he to make phone calls to lawyers, family, and friends.  It may be very tempting for s/he to say quite a bit on these phone calls – how they got in jail, what the allegations are, etc.  It may seem safe to say things on these phone calls – but that is indeed a terrible idea.  It is not safe at all and these conversations can be used against you.

Phones: 

All calls from Texas jails are monitored.  Phone calls to lawyers are not supposed to be monitored and recorded but we cannot be sure that they are not.  All other calls are for sure monitored and recorded.  Law enforcement is listening for admissions of guilt, intimidation of witnesses, promises made to get witnesses not to testify, statements made to further a conspiracy – all kinds of things that can be very detrimental to a criminal case and valuable for the prosecution.

These calls can be used as probable cause to charge others with offenses or cause the investigation of other people. They can be used as evidence in the person in jail’s case.  The prosecution can use these calls in trial and in plea negotiations.  They are admissible – even if the defendant didn’t know s/he was being recorded.

Indeed, if the defendant makes overtures against witnesses to intimidate them not to testify, this can be used in “forfeiture” proceedings in which the prosecution can fight to admit witness statements even if the witness does not testify.  These statements can be admissible over objections by the Defendant that he did not have the right to confront the witness.  By intimidating the witness the state will argue the Defendant forfeited his right to confront that witness.   This is very common in family violence cases.

Visits:

In-person visits in most Texas jails are recorded and monitored.  In just the same way as statements made in phone calls can be used against the defendant, s/he should expect that incriminating statements made in visits can be introduced as well.  The recordings can and will be played to a jury if the case goes to trial.

The Future:

Law enforcement and private corporations that service correctional facilities are advancing the technology with which they use to monitor prisoners’ communications.    They are working to develop voice recognition software to determine if the inmate used another inmate’s account to make the call.  They may be developing rapid cell phone location determining technology to find the location of the person the inmate is talking to from jail. 

All in all it’s a bad idea to say too much on jail calls.  Make all calls with the knowledge that you are being recorded and the recordings will be passed on to the prosecution in your case. 

Lastly, a word to the wise, don’t call family and then have the family member call your attorney on a three-way call.  If you do that, the attorney’s number will not be recognized and that attorney call will not be exempted from routine recording of all calls.  It will therefore not be confidential.

Be careful when you are in jail.  You have zero privacy and your words will be used against you.