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Bail Bondsmen

Outlook

Opportunities for bail-bonding work are growing as people with criminal justice, law enforcement, and insurance training enter and gain success in the field, thus gaining the public's respect for the necessity of this work. Professional Bail Agents of the United States says the bail bondsman career is a growing field, but the use of personal recognizance bail has had a negative impact on its growth. (When judges release an accused person on their own personal recognizance, there is no need for bail bond service; however, there is also no guarantee that the person will show up for court.)

Bail bonding is an industry under constant scrutiny by the justice system, primarily because of the authority of the bail bondsman to engage in activities that some law enforcers cannot perform (such as entering homes without a warrant in search of a bail jumper and crossing state lines to apprehend someone) and what is said to be a financial, rather than moral, interest in bringing criminals back to trial. According to a January 2019 Wisconsin Public Radio article, while completely eliminating cash bail is the goal of some activists, "there is a strong profit motive from the bail bond industry to keep the practice alive."