Who They Are, Who Funds Them, and What Happens When Their Promises Meet the Results Introduction The "Anti-Surety Movement" is a national network of advocacy organizations, litigation groups, private foundations, government agencies, and nonprofit bail funds that has spent decades, and an enormous amount of money, building
Unity, legislative muscle, and judicial insight define North Carolina's premier bail event The North Carolina Bail Agents Association (NCBAA) just wrapped up a highly successful 2026 Annual Conference at the Courtyard by Marriott Carolina Beach Oceanfront. This year's event was a masterclass in industry unity, active
A decade after Jackson eliminated secured surety bail for municipal misdemeanors, the question is no longer what reformers expected to happen. It is what the evidence shows actually happened. In 2016, the City of Jackson settled Bell v. City of Jackson, a federal lawsuit brought by the MacArthur Justice Center
While traveling across Mississippi and meeting with bail agents, we continue to ask: How can the MBAA be more helpful to you? Quality bail agent education is one of the answers we hear most often. The response to our new education program has been tremendous, and bail agents appreciate not
A Harvard randomized trial found that Arnold Ventures’ Public Safety Assessment failed to produce meaningful improvements in court appearance, new criminal activity, violent crime, pretrial detention, or racial fairness—raising serious questions about replacing professional surety bail with taxpayer-funded prediction systems. This should be a wake-up call for
How courts are punishing defendants before their court date is even set. In Mississippi, punishment is supposed to come after guilt. A person is arrested, charged with an offense, given an opportunity to obtain pretrial release, and eventually appears in court where the State must prove its case. Only after
Bail bonds protect the presumption of innocence and allow defendants to continue working, supporting their families, and preparing their defense while their case is pending. Without this system, defendants who have not been convicted of anything could remain in jail simply because they cannot afford to pay the full amount
From Industry Communication to National Influence: How PBUS Is Reaching an Audience Far Beyond the Bail Profession Mike Morrison is leading a social media strategy designed to take the PBUS message beyond the bail profession and directly to the American public. A recent PBUS post generated 180,347 views, reached
Why replacing conditional release with expanded government incarceration threatens due process, public budgets, and the presumption of innocence. In the evolving debate over American criminal justice reform, few legal mechanisms are as fundamentally misunderstood as preventive detention. The term sounds technical. The consequence is not. Preventive detention gives government the
The Difference Between Taxpayer-Funded Release and the Bail Profession There is a part of the bail debate that rarely receives the attention it deserves: who pays for the system? When government creates a taxpayer-funded pretrial release program, somebody has to pay for the building, office space, utilities, computers,
A look at how one Hattiesburg bail agent built a career on legal knowledge, discretion, and staying current as the courts around him changed. Mike Morrison Bail Bonding has operated in Hattiesburg since 1991. In that time, the company has posted bonds and worked directly with nearly 30,000 clients,
California Bail Agents Just Beat Back Another Bad Bill SB 562 asked bail agents to carry all the risk and none of the certainty. The industry fought it for eighteen months, and on August 13, it lost. California Senate Bill 562 is dead for this legislative session, and the bail