County Clerk Delia Briones said her office has discovered about $800,000 that was never returned to people after they completed their court orders over the last nine years.
She said when someone is charged, they are taken to jail and often have the opportunity to post bond for their release. When all fines, probation and other orders made by the judge in their case are completed, the money, minus a handling fee, can be returned.
"Say it's a grandmother who just wants to help and get her grandson out (of jail). It never dawns on her that it would be returned," Briones said.
Her office began sending out about 900 letters to those entitled to a refund about a month ago. Once they contact her office, she said the process of getting the funds released by a judge begins, and the money is soon available.
"People are wondering if it's a scam," she said. "They're calling and wondering if it's for real."
Unclaimed money will be turned over to the state.
To check on a possible bond refund, call 546-2071.
1 comment:
The way to avoid this is by posting cash bail, but many jurisdictions will not allow this, and regardless, it is hard to come up with $100K cash on the timeframe that most people would like to be released from jail on.
The more you learn about how the legal system actually works, the more surprised you will be how few rights Americans actually have. In theory, there are a fair number of rights, but most of these rights are rendered moot due to practical realities of life. Even in theory, the rights are far more limited than those enjoyed by citizens of, e.g., Western European countries. The odd thing about America is that the public believes that we enjoy a large number of rights which in reality are illusory. For instance, how hard would it be to pass a law saying "bail bondsmen must refund all but a small administrative fee in cases where it turns out the accused is ACTUALLY INNOCENT", i.e., not cases where the accused is merely found not guilty [due to lack of evidence or a technicality], but cases where new evidence reveals that the accused, more likely than not, is actually innocent of the charges. This would be an easy law to pass, but legislatures show little interest in providing people with /actual/ practical protections in the criminal justice system.
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