How Concentrated Is the Opposition to Professional Surety Bail?
How Concentrated Is the Opposition to Professional Surety Bail?
The opposition to professional surety bail is concentrated in a small circle of foundations and organizations. Our strength is spread across every community in America, and it only counts if we use it.
By Michael D. Morrison
How concentrated is the opposition to professional surety bail? When the money is followed, the answer is a small network of foundations, litigation groups, and advocacy organizations, not a movement rising out of American communities. I documented who those groups are and how they are funded in The Anti-Surety Movement. This discussion looks at how few of them there are, and what has happened when their agenda was put in front of voters.
https://mike-morrison-public-safety-and-accountability.ghost.io/the-anti-surety-movement/
The funding base is narrow. Arnold Ventures has made more than $1 billion in grants since its founding, with criminal justice as one of its core programs. Its National Partnership for Pretrial Justice brought more than two dozen grantees together under $48 million in pretrial grants. The MacArthur Foundation’s Safety and Justice Challenge, a jail-reduction initiative, reached $381.5 million by 2024. The Bail Project launched its national expansion on a single grant from TED’s Audacious Project, reported at between $24 million and $30 million. Add Open Society, Ford, Public Welfare, Chan Zuckerberg, and Open Philanthropy, and the core money behind the movement fits on one page.
The professional staff is small as well. When Arnold launched its pretrial partnership, its own announcement reported a livestream joined by more than 130 pretrial justice advocates from 31 states. That same circle produces the research, files the lawsuits, and supplies the quotes reporters rely on, which is why the same names keep appearing in the press as independent voices, as I showed in The Same Source, Twice.
https://mike-morrison-public-safety-and-accountability.ghost.io/the-same-source-twice/
California is the clearest test of what that network can do with voters. Proposition 25 asked Californians to approve a law eliminating cash bail statewide. It was backed by Governor Gavin Newsom, the California Democratic Party, the Service Employees International Union, and the California Medical Association. Voters rejected it by about 56 percent, and it failed in nearly every county outside the Bay Area. The fight was not one-sided. Bail agents and insurance companies raised more than $10 million against it, and some reform groups also opposed it for not going far enough. Even so, the most powerful political leadership in the state could not carry it.
Ohio and Wisconsin followed. In 2022, after the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that judges could not consider public safety when setting bail, about 78 percent of Ohio voters approved Issue 1 to restore that authority, with Republican Governor Mike DeWine and his Democratic challenger Nan Whaley both supporting it. In 2023, Wisconsin voters approved two bail amendments with 67 and 68 percent support, giving judges more authority to set bail and release conditions to protect the public. That amendment reached the ballot with 12 Assembly Democrats voting alongside Republicans.
The conclusion is direct. The opposition to professional surety bail is not the American public. It is a small, well-funded network that wins only when a few people make the decision for everyone else. In every case examined here, when the question was put to the voters, the voters rejected its position. That tells the bail profession exactly where this fight is won. It will not be won by matching foundation dollars or counting advocates. It will be won by keeping these decisions in front of the people, because when the people decide, they choose accountability.
Sources
Arnold Ventures, National Partnership for Pretrial Justice: https://arnoldventures.org/stories/national-partnership-brings-unified-voice-to-pretrial-justice-movement
Boston University, Arnold Ventures grant history: https://www.bu.edu/foundations/resources/calendar/?eid=280506
City of New Orleans, Safety and Justice Challenge total: https://nola.gov/next/mayors-office/news/articles/2024/february-2024/2024-02-20-ocjc-safety-and-justice-challenge/
Stanford Social Innovation Review, Bail Project and Audacious Project: https://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_fight_to_end_cash_bail
Rosenberg Foundation, Bail Project and Audacious Project: https://rosenbergfound.org/?p=2372
EPIC, California Proposition 25 result: https://epic.org/?p=19462
Courthouse News, Proposition 25 county results and spending: https://www.courthousenews.com/bid-to-end-cash-bail-system-fails-in-california/
CapRadio, reform groups opposing Proposition 25: https://www.capradio.org/articles/2020/11/12/cash-bail-survived-the-ballot-but-reformers-say-the-battle-to-end-it-isnt-over/
ABC10, Proposition 25 supporters: https://abc10.com/article/news/politics/prop-25-election-results/103-d7adcf17-a9ec-4002-8dae-c93e684a8830
WCPO, Ohio Issue 1 result: https://www.wcpo.com/news/government/local-politics/ohio-voters-pass-issue-1-requiring-judges-to-consider-public-safety-when-setting-bail
NBC4, Ohio Supreme Court ruling behind Issue 1: https://digital-release.nbc4i.com/?p=1283039
WOUB, DeWine and Whaley support for Issue 1: https://woub.org/?p=288790
PBS Wisconsin, Wisconsin bail amendments: https://pbswisconsin.org/?p=58316
Wisconsin Examiner, Assembly vote on the bail amendment: https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2023/01/20/assembly-approves-bail-amendment-welfare-work-requirement-for-april-ballot/
About the Author
Mike Morrison is the 2026 PBUS National Bail Agent of the Year, President of the Mississippi Bail Agents Association, and a nationally recognized bail educator, speaker, and criminal justice commentator. With more than 35 years of hands-on experience as a licensed Professional Bail Agent and owner of Mike Morrison Bail Bonding Company in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, he brings a practical, real-world perspective to discussions involving American legal history, institutional accountability, constitutional rights, public safety, technology, and public policy.
Morrison is recognized as a bail trainer by the Mississippi Judicial College and is a sought-after guest speaker for judicial, prosecutorial, and industry conferences across the country. He has presented before state judges, justice court clerks, prosecutors, attorneys general staff, and bail professionals nationwide, and he travels to state bail association conferences to speak on bail and on social media strategy for the profession. He also leads professional education and ethics programs for bail agents through the Master Class Bail Agent Series and other national training initiatives.
At the national level, Morrison works with the Professional Bail Agents of the United States (PBUS) Board of Directors and supports its committees on national initiatives. He also works with the boards of directors of other state bail associations, sharing the strategies behind Mississippi’s successes so they can be put to work across the profession.
He has published nearly 200 articles examining the institutions, policies, and decisions that affect working Americans. His writing is grounded in decades spent inside courtrooms, jails, communities, and the criminal justice system, and his commentary has surpassed 1.9 million views across social media in 2026.
Independent, plain-spoken, and focused on accountability, Morrison writes and speaks about the intersection of government, liberty, public safety, professional responsibility, and the real-world consequences of public policy in Mississippi and across the nation.
© 2026 Mike Morrison. All rights reserved.
