UPPER MARLBORO, Md. — The president of the region's bail bond association is predicting that petty criminals will roam Prince George's County with impunity as State's Attorney Aisha Braveboy is ordering her prosecutors to stop asking judges to set bails in cases that don't affect public safety.
"They're the porch bandits," Sol Hamilton, the D.C./Maryland Bail Bondsmen Association President, said. "They're the people breaking into cars and stealing your tires. They know with this system they're not going to go to jail."
"We make sure people come back to court," Hamilton said. "The system doesn't work without us."
But Braveboy said the cash bail system lands a lot of defendants in jail for the wrong reasons.
"Justice should apply to everyone equally and fairly," Braveboy said. "A cash bail system is a system where people who have money and means have the ability to bond themselves out where people who may be poor don't have that ability."
Braveboy said prosecutors will stop asking judges to set bails beginning Oct. 1. Instead, prosecutors will request defendants be put under supervision of the County's Pretrial Services division.
Braveboy said restrictive requirements for defendants to report to case managers weekly or daily will result in more defendants showing up for court, not less.
Judges have the final say in any case, and can set bail regardless of a prosecutor's recommendation.