Bail bond 10% fee is non-refundable even when charges are dropped

Bail bond agents charge a non-refundable premium of 10% of the bail amount. If bail is set at $10,000, a family pays $1,000 they will never get back, regardless of whether the defendant is found not guilty, charges are dropped, or the case is dismissed. The bail bond industry collects over $2 billion per year from these premiums. The people paying are overwhelmingly low-income: 80% of people in the criminal legal system are legally indigent, meaning they cannot afford the necessities of life. So the fee is extracted from people who can least afford it, for a service that exists only because they are too poor to post the full bail amount themselves. A wealthier defendant posts $10,000 cash bail, gets it all back at case resolution, and pays $0. A poor defendant pays $1,000 to a bondsman, gets $0 back, and still owes the bondsman if the defendant misses a hearing. This persists because the commercial bail bond industry is a $2 billion/year business backed by large insurance underwriters (like Tokio Marine, Fairfax Financial, and Endeavour Capital) who lobby aggressively to preserve the system. The American Bail Coalition spent over $1 million on lobbying in 2022 alone and has written 12 model bills through ALEC to fortify the industry.