Secured bail is not effective because defendants enjoy paying a premium. It is effective because a surety has money, authority, information, and reputation at risk if the defendant disappears.

Under secured bail, the private surety carries the cost and the risk of getting a defendant back to court. Not the taxpayer. Eliminate it, and those functions don’t vanish. They land in a government-run system paid for with state and county tax dollars.

Minnesota’s bail professionals have launched a new statewide nonprofit, the Minnesota Bail Association (MBA), to defend secured bail and to give the profession one credible voice with lawmakers, the courts, and the public.