The Bail Post
What do we know about criminal justice reforms or bail reform? How do we evaluate whether reforms are helping or making the situation worse? How can we take politics out of criminal justice and focus on public safety? The Bail Post seeks to be a place where legislators and the public can educate themselves on a host of criminal justice/bail reform issues. With various attempts at criminal justice reform from New York to Texas to California, many people are confused as to what is working and what is not. With the passage of time, more and more data is coming to light over what successful reform looks like and what reforms have been found to not be working. The rise in violent crime across the country has been startling and law makers and the public alike are desperate to find legislation that is effective. Some might ask whether some of the reforms making the situation worse? The Bail Post is an on-going discussion that seeks to cut to the core to provide education on the various issues raised and to highlight what successful criminal justice reform looks like and what measures have been disastrous. Join us and educate yourself about the best practices that jurisdictions must implement to keep their communities safe, while ensuring fairness to defendants. As a someone said recently "Public safety is the foundation of a society. Without public safety we do not have a society."
If you would like to listen other episodes of The Bail Post you can find a subject matter index of the different episodes at- https://pbtx.blogspot.com/p/subject-index-to-bail-post-podcasts.html.
The host is Ken W. Good; an attorney in Tyler, Texas who has been licensed for over 30 years. He has argued cases before the Supreme Court of Texas and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Mr. Good has written a book on bail called "Goods On Bail." He has also has had numerous papers published on Criminal Justice Reform issues. Mr. Good is a board member of PBT and serves on the legislative committee. Mr. Good is married and has two daughters.
The Bail Post
Episode No. 42- Bail Litigation- A Tale of Two Counties With Guest Sheriff Matt Gentry
On this episode of The Bail Post, we discuss two different counties approaches to federal bail litigation. In both counties, the federal courts entered preliminary injunctions to fundamentally change local bail procedures. In Schultz v. Alabama, the county appealed, refused to settle and fought the litigation every step of the way. The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the preliminary injunction and returned control of bail back to the county. In contrast, in O'Donnell v. Harris County, the county appealed and won only to have the trial court enter a new preliminary injunction. It was appealed as well and the 5th Circuit stayed the 2nd preliminary injunction stating that there was a substantial likelihood that the judges would win again. However, the case did not go forward because there was an election and new judges were elected who promised to resolve the litigation. A settlement was entered that tied the hands of the judges going forward.
On this episode, we hear the tale of two counties: one that stood up to the plaintiffs' attorneys and won and another county that gave up and is still suffering the consequences to this day.
The Guest is Matt Gentry who is the Sheriff of Cullman County, Alabama. Sheriff Gentry was born and raised in Cullman County. He attended school there. After a stint in the Marines he returned home and went to work for the sheriff's department where he worked his way up to be the elected sheriff.