Bail bondsmen helping victims, saving taxpayer money

By Jody Barr
WBTW News 13 Reporter
Published: April 30, 2008

Many times, those charged with crimes get out of jail on bond, then never show up for court dates.

Police often re-arrest those people, who a judge trusted would not break the law while out of jail awaiting trial.

That’s when the services bail bondsmen offer the judicial system a valuable service that doesn’t cost taxpayers a single cent.

Even though the bonding business carries with it a bad reputation, for many it offers the justice system, victims, and taxpayers a highly valuable service.

Al Holcomb owns one of the largest bonding companies in Horry County.

Holcomb said bondsmen work around the clock, “You just can’t forget it at 5 o’clock and walk out the door. If a man does that’s he’s not doing his job,“ Holcomb told News13

Holcomb is one of 22 bondsmen serving Horry County.

After decades of signing bonds, it’s a job that’s now become a career for Holcomb.

Bondsmen play a vital role in the judicial process and it starts as soon as a judge sets bond, “We are to supervise that defendant and to notify the court in case of his disappearance, or any misbehavior he does,“ Holcomb said.

Bondsmen do two things: post their own money to set people free from jail, and secondly, keep a close eye on defendants while they await trial, to make sure they don’t try to skip out on justice.

Holcomb keeps track of his clients by requiring each one to call in weekly and he also makes house calls, “Our usual visit, just checking on our boy,” Holcomb told Lee Crawford, whose son Holcomb got out of jail on more than $100,000 bail.

Holcomb stopped at Crawford’s Conway home on a routine check to make sure his client is holding a job and not in violation of his bond conditions.

Lee Crawford told Holcomb his son is keeping a job at the Conway Goodwill store.

Crawford faces three felony charges, that all combined could land him in prison for the rest of his life.

Holcomb says knocking on hundreds of doors seems like more work than it’s worth, but he knows that letting his guard down could cost him his livelihood, “It saves the court a lot of trouble, it saves me a lot of trouble and it saves my personnel a lot of trouble from having to go out, seek and find this man because we know where he’s at,“ Holcomb said.

Holcomb said bondsmen play an important role in the judicial process and do a job that taxpayers couldn’t afford to pay law enforcement to do.

“If they had to put on a special task force to pick up all the bench warrants in Horry County alone, we’d be up in the millions I’d assume.“

Bondsmen charge clients anywhere from 6 percent to 15 percent of the bond amount to get them out of jail, the maximum is 15 percent which is mandated by state law.

When people fail to show for court dates, judges issue bench warrants.

Solicitor Greg Hembree said Horry County circuit court judges issued between 1,200 and 1,500 general sessions bench warrants in 2007.

Of those, 563 are pending, meaning those defendants remain on the run.

Hembree said in many cases, one defendant might have more than one bench warrant, so the actual number of perpetrators is less than the 563.

Hembree said the credit for the number of people arrested on bench warrants is shared between law enforcement and bondsmen.