In December 2010, police in Cumberland County, Maine tried to stop a speeder. He led them on a chase and ended up crashing on a I-95 exit ramp.
The local bail commissioner was told the charges were driving at a criminal speed and operating with a suspended license. He set the bail at $300.
When the man appeared in court two days later, the judge reset his bail at $25,000.
The difference, according to bail commissioner Alan Robitaille, was the judge knew a lot more about the defendant than he did.
When Robitaille set bail, he was unaware of two charges — eluding an officer and reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon, the car. Robitaille said he also had not been told of the man’s extensive criminal history, including five prior violations of operating after suspension, burglary and cultivating marijuana.
When the defendant appeared in court, the judge set bail 83 times higher than the less-informed bail commissioner.
Robitaille said, “That would tell me that the court had a heck of a lot more information at its disposal than I did.”
The case demonstrates one of the problems with Maine’s justice system, which depends on independent contractors to set bail in most cases. Bail commissioners rely on the arresting officer or a jail employee to give them information — usually over the phone — that they use when deciding whether to release the person without bail or to set an amount for bail.
A 2006 study of the system commissioned by a state-appointed corrections panel noted: “A majority of law enforcement agencies and jails reported they are limited to locally specific records and often times reporting the known criminal history for that county or the arrest/booking history for that jail only.”
Without a full and accurate understanding of the defendant, experts say a bail commissioner could set bail too low, which could put a dangerous person back on the street. Or the bail could be set too high and unfairly deprive a person accused of a crime of their liberty for a day or two until a judge can review the bail.
Robert Mullen, deputy chief judge of the district courts, oversees bail commissioners. He said he has checked with state record-keepers and has been told that commissioners do not have to wait to see relevant records.
“All the jails can run a defendant’s records, not just state or county, but nationally,” he said. ”And most police departments can run the same check [in their cruisers] and that’s pretty much instantaneous unless the system is down.”