Arrest
Another Mississippi shooting raises a harder question about human behavior, respect for life, public safety, and fear of consequences. Friday morning in Bolton, Mississippi, Tiffany Marshall was preparing to take her baby to daycare when gunfire struck her home. She told WLBT that she grabbed her baby to protect him
accountability
The Bail Industry’s Art of the Deal: A Strategic Blueprint for National Reform Why the profession must stop reacting to reform and start writing it — and what seven months of doing exactly that has put on the record. First published January 2026. Updated September 2026. Donald Trump’s The
accountability
Why the Founders' fight over liberty and authority still explains what surety bail does Over the past several months, I have written a series examining the ideas that shaped the American system of liberty and government. The subjects have ranged from Thomas Paine, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison,
Bail
For over a decade, the criminal justice system has been a testing ground for a compelling modern theory: that the foundational challenges of pretrial liberty and public safety could be optimized through data science. The high-water mark of this movement occurred when proponents began advocating for widespread adoption of
accountability
How the Statute of Westminster I began limiting government discretion over pretrial liberty more than five centuries before the Bill of Rights Long before George Mason, the Virginia Declaration of Rights, or the Eighth Amendment, English law was already struggling with a question that remains familiar today: how much power
Criminal Justice
How Axios keeps handing Vera Institute the authority slot on why crime is falling Axios has now run two separate stories on the historic 2025-2026 crime decline. Both times, the outlet turned to the same person to discount enforcement as an explanation: Insha Rahman, president of the Vera Institute
Bail
As a Master Class graduate, a professional Bail Agent should have a strong working understanding of the expungement process in Mississippi. Not because we are attorneys or because we should attempt to practice law, but because the question will eventually come from someone we once helped: “Can I get this
Bail
If We Want Respect, Visibility and Public Trust, We Have to Earn It Across the United States, I spend a great deal of time looking at social media pages belonging to bail agents, bail bond companies and organizations within our profession, and far too often I come away asking the
Bail
How Artificial Intelligence Is Supercharging a Crime That Has Targeted American Families for Nearly Two Decades The sudden attention being given to bail scams can leave the impression that this is a new crime. It is not. The FBI was warning the public about the “grandparent scam” in 2012 and
Bail
"Follow the Money, the Authority, and the Accountability — and See Which System Actually Works" The difference between government pretrial services and professional surety bail becomes much easier to understand when we stop arguing slogans and start looking at how the two systems actually operate. Both are supposed to
Arrest
America cannot fix its criminal justice system by defending failed policies, tolerating ineffective leadership, or ignoring constitutional rights. For more than a decade, criminal justice reform has been sold as a way to make the system fairer, more efficient, and safer. Bail reform, diversion programs, alternatives to incarceration, reduced enforcement,
Arrest
When Bail Reform Ignores Criminal History, Victims, Court Appearance and the Real Cost of Replacing Accountability With Government Supervision The Vera Institute of Justice is once again promoting the idea that California’s courts have not gone far enough in reducing bail and pretrial detention. Vera senior researcher Madeline Bailey