Bail
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
Mike Morrison Bail Bonding
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
Arrest
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
Mike Morrison Bail Bonding
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
Mike Morrison Bail Bonding
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
Bail
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
Mike Morrison Bail Bonding
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,
constitutional bail rights
Circuit courts handle some of the government’s most consequential daily work. People are jailed or released on bond. Cases are dismissed, continued, negotiated, tried, or resolved. Sentences are imposed. Victims, defendants, witnesses, families, prosecutors, defense lawyers, judges, clerks, and law enforcement all pass through those rooms. Much of this
abuse
A federal judge just ruled the government cannot vacuum up everyone's phone data to find one suspect. It is not an isolated ruling. It is the same pattern I wrote about earlier this week when traffic cameras sold as convenience quietly became warrant-free bulk surveillance networks. Once
Arrest
Traffic cameras were sold as convenience. What they've become is a warrant-free surveillance network — and the Fourth Amendment doesn't have an exception for technology. Traffic cameras were sold as convenience. What they've become is a warrant-free surveillance network — and the Fourth Amendment
Arrest
In 2018, Mississippi's bail reform critics were dismissed as fearmongers. In 2026, the numbers say they were right. State leaders rarely go back and check their own work. Once a policy is passed, the people who championed it move on to the next cause, and the communities left
Bail Enforcement
A Ride Along in the World of Bail Enforcement Agents Most people will never truly understand the world of a professional bail enforcement agent because most of that world exists while the rest of society is asleep. The public sees fragments of it through social media clips, television shows, arrest