47. Bail Bonds

Summary

The Economics of Everyday Things Episode 47: Bail Bonds
Hosted by Zachary Crockett | Aired June 11, 2026

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Overview

This episode of The Economics of Everyday Things explores the world of bail bonds, a $15 billion industry often portrayed as sketchy but serving as a critical – if controversial – release valve in the American justice system. With insights from bail bond agent and defense attorney Stephen Zaluski and sociologist Joshua Page, the episode unpacks how bail bonds work, who they impact, how the economics stack up, and how bail reform is changing the landscape.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. What Are Bail Bonds, and Who Uses Them?

• When someone is charged with a crime, a judge may set bail – a sum of money as insurance for their court appearance.
• If you can’t pay the full amount (often thousands of dollars), a bail bond company will post it for you in exchange for a non-refundable fee (typically 10% of the bail).
• Bail bond companies exist across the U.S. and handle around 2 million cases annually, posting approximately $15 billion in bail ([01:29]).

2. The Mechanics of the Bail Bonds Business

• Contrary to popular belief, agents rarely hand over large amounts of cash upfront; it's usually a promissory note, with collateral used for big sums ([02:14]).
• Collateral can be anything of value — homes, luxury cars, engagement rings ([06:40]).
• The business is closer to an insurance model: “We are an insurance company... I’m handing them a bond, which is a promissory note that says, hey, if he doesn’t come back to court, I pay.” — Stephen Zaluski ([06:05]).

3. Who Pays for Bail Bonds?

• Family members or friends, predominately women (mothers, grandmothers, partners), are usually the cosigners ([07:09]).
• Bail bondsmen target women because they’re more likely to pay and support defendants.
• Agents form relationships with defense attorneys for mutual referrals and sometimes cold-call families using jail rosters ([08:13]-[08:35]).
• Signing a bail bond makes you a guarantor for the full amount if the defendant flees.

4. Enforcement & Bounty Hunting

• Bail agents must ensure clients return to court; if they skip, the company deploys bounty hunters (“My responsibility then is to monitor the person, make sure they go back to court.” — Zaluski, [11:02]).
• Reality shows like “Dog the Bounty Hunter” sensationalize the practice, but most cases resolve quietly; bounty hunting can sometimes get violent or dramatic, but often “90% of people who skip bail are with a family member” ([12:34]).
• Bounty hunters typically receive 10-20% of the bond upon capturing fugitives ([13:52]).
• Family cosigners are on the hook for bond and bounty hunter costs if the defendant disappears ([14:07]).

5. Low Forfeiture Rates & Industry Economics

• Despite the risk, bail bond companies rarely pay out large sums; Zaluski reports “forfeitures in pay less than 1/10 of 1%” ([14:40]).
• Auto/property insurance payouts are much higher (up to 60% of revenue).
• Bail firms are backed by insurance giants and benefit from long grace periods to return fugitives, with courts cooperating to avoid forfeitures ([15:12]).

6. The Role of Bail Bonds in the Justice System

• Bail bonds provide a solution to jail overcrowding by facilitating pretrial releases that might be unaffordable otherwise ([15:32]).
• As sociologist Joshua Page notes: “The bail bond industry functions as a release valve” ([15:32]).

7. The Debate Over Cash Bail and Reform

• Moving into the 1980s-2000s, bail amounts doubled and jail populations soared, creating a system where hundreds of thousands are jailed pretrial—at a cost of about $12B/year ([15:55]).
• Ironically, sometimes bail is set so low that bond companies don’t want the business (“on a thousand dollar bail, my fee is $100” — Zaluski, [17:09]).
• States like New York, California, Kentucky, New Mexico, and Illinois have imposed bail reforms; Illinois eliminated cash bail entirely ([17:19]-[18:09]).
• These reforms reduce jail populations but also destabilize the bail bond industry, closing offices and reducing cash bail assignments ([19:05]).

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• Zaluski on the perception of the industry:
  “All I would hear… are horror stories. People being charged exorbitant fees, never being able to get collateral money back...” ([05:34])

• On collateral:
  “I’ve gotten things as exotic as Bugattis… engagement rings are, believe it or not, very common.” — Zaluski ([06:40])

• On the sociological side:
  “Typically [payers] are mothers, grandmothers, spouses, partners, former partners, sisters, and so forth.” — Joshua Page ([07:09])

• On bounty hunter reality vs. TV:
  “I don’t need a guy with… hair extensions and paintball gun running around to catch people. It just. It doesn’t make any sense.” — Zaluski ([11:45])

• Unexpected incident:
  “People would literally come to surrender, and they bring the backpack, and I take the backpack and search it, and there were guns, drugs… So I can get this when I get out? I said, no…” — Zaluski ([13:34])

• Low forfeiture rates:
  “We were doing forfeitures in pay less than 1/10 of 1%.” — Zaluski ([14:40])

• On bail companies as a “release valve”:
  “...the bail bond industry functions as a release valve to try to deal with jail overcrowding.” — Joshua Page ([15:32])

• On shrinking business post-reform:
  “Originally, we were the largest bail firm in New York… With the change of the bail laws in New York, everybody became small.” — Zaluski ([19:05])

• Summary quip:
  “When you walk out of the courthouse and spit you should be spitting on my door.” — Zaluski ([19:55])

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Timestamps of Important Segments

• 00:48 — Walk-through of the typical client experience
• 01:29 — Bail bonds industry overview
• 02:14 — Misconceptions about how bonds work
• 06:05 — Bail bonds as a form of insurance
• 07:09 — Who pays for bail bonds
• 08:35 — How bail bond agents find clients
• 11:02 — The role of enforcement and bounty hunting
• 13:34 — Unusual moments and managing contraband
• 14:40 — Payouts and forfeiture rates in bail bonds vs. traditional insurance
• 15:32 — Bail bonds as a tool for managing jail populations
• 17:09 — Low bail amounts disincentivizing bondsmen
• 17:19-18:09 — State bail reform measures and their impacts
• 19:05 — Impact of reform and COVID on bail bond companies

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Final Thoughts

This episode demystifies the bail bond industry, outlining its crucial – and often controversial – role in the U.S. criminal justice system. It spotlights the human and economic implications, addresses persistent myths, and examines the far-reaching effects of bail reform. The nuanced discussion, peppered with candid moments from those inside the industry, offers listeners a thorough understanding of what’s at stake when someone’s freedom rests on bail.

Transcript

[Stephen Zaluski]

The Sprite Berry Blast is here.

[Commercial Announcer]

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[Stephen Zaluski]

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[Commercial Announcer]

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[Venture Global Representative]

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[Stephen Zaluski]

So people come into my office and let's say it's 8 o' clock in the morning and last night their son got arrested for possession of a weapon. They're frantic. The police department isn't giving them information. The court system's not giving them information. So they want to know what's going on. They always want to know what the charge is. They want to know where they were arrested and then they want to know how they get them out. When I get the person released, my fee is then made.

[Zachary Crockett]

That is Stephen Zaluski. He's a criminal defense attorney in New York, but he also has another job.

[Stephen Zaluski]

I am one of the owners of Affordable Bails New York.

[Zachary Crockett]

Affordable Bails is one of around 25,000 bail bond companies in the United States. These businesses are usually across the street from a courthouse, illuminated by neon signs. And for those accused of crimes, they offer a way to get out of jail while awaiting trial. More than 2 million Americans use their services each year to post around $15 billion worth of bail. Bail bonds are a controversial business. They're often portrayed as seedy establishments with briefcases full of cash and bounty hunters who kick down doors. And some of that is true. But the economics of the industry are often misunderstood.

[Stephen Zaluski]

It's a common misconception that I walk in with $100,000 in. Basically, I'm giving them a promissory note. When your kid got arrested for doing something stupid, you may not have $5,000 you can come to court with.

[Zachary Crockett]

For the Freakonomics radio network, this is the economics of everyday things. I'm Zachary Crockett. Today, bail bonds. When you're charged with a crime in America, you're usually taken to a local jail. Within a few days, a judge will review your case and decide if you should be given bail. That's the option to get out of jail while you're waiting for your court date. If you're granted bail. In most cases, the court wants some kind of Assurance that you're going to show up when you're supposed to. So they'll order you to put up a sum of money to secure your release.

[Stephen Zaluski]

The concept is that if there's a financial stake in your return, people will likely return again.

[Zachary Crockett]

That's Stephen Zalewski.

[Stephen Zaluski]

If they set bail, they can set it in multiple forms. Some states actually have a schedule. So if you commit crime a, the bail is x. Other states have complete discretion of the court.

[Zachary Crockett]

The amount of your bail varies depending on where you live and what you're charged with. You might be ordered to pay something like $5,000. If you're accused of misdemeanor assault, it could be $25,000 for grand theft auto. And for something like murder, kidnapping or rape, bail might be well into the six or even seven figures. When you're granted bail, you generally have a few options. You can pay the full amount, let's say $5,000 to the court. Assuming you show up to your court dates, you'll eventually get it back after your case is resolved. Less fees and surcharges if you pay

[Stephen Zaluski]

into the court system. The court, for instance, New York, take a 3 or 4% surcharge.

[Zachary Crockett]

If you don't have $5,000. Another option is to stay in jail.

[Stephen Zaluski]

I would say the majority of Americans right now don't have $5,000 laying around in their house. They can pay.

[Zachary Crockett]

When you don't pay your bail, you might sit in jail for months or even years waiting for your court date. But there's another alternative. You can call up a bail bond company. The bail bond industry traces its origins to the wild west as the story. In the late 1800s, two brothers, Peter and Thomas mcdonough, picked up on an opportunity while working at their father's saloon in San Francisco. They realized that most of the local criminals didn't have any family members around to post bail to the courts when they got in trouble. So they began charging a fee to front them the money. The business was so profitable that the brothers eventually replaced the saloon with a bail bond establishment. The concept spread around the country, and by the mid 20th century, bail bond companies were a fixture in the American justice system.

[Stephen Zaluski]

The purpose of the bail bond industry is to provide someone with the ability to get out relatively quickly, as well as make sure that the person returns to court.

[Zachary Crockett]

Zaluski started his firm, Affordable bails New York, around 15 years ago. He was well aware of the industry's unsavory reputation.

[Stephen Zaluski]

I was a criminal defense attorney for many years, and before I Even knew anything about the bond business. And all I would hear, to be quite honest with you, are horror stories. People being charged exorbitant fees, never being able to get collateral money back, People revoking bonds because the guy was 15 minutes late for his check in.

[Zachary Crockett]

Since starting his firm, Zaluski says He's posted around 75,000 bail bonds for clients in the state of New York. The business model for all those bonds is pretty simple.

[Stephen Zaluski]

So you have to look at us as an insurance agency. A little different than the guy that sells you car insurance, but nonetheless, we are an insurance company. I'm handing them a bond, which is a promissory note that says, hey, if he doesn't come back to court, I

[Zachary Crockett]

pay in return for taking on this risk. Bail agents charge a fee. In most states, it's around 10% of the bail amount. So for a $5,000 bail, you pay 500 bucks and you don't get it back. Sometimes for bigger bail amounts, Zaluski will also take collateral to cover his risk.

[Stephen Zaluski]

They may give me the deed to their house, and I'll put a lien on their home. I've gotten things as exotic as Bugattis. I mean, amazing cars, engagement rings are, believe it or not, very common. So we collateralize the bail with what we think is appropriate based on the crime.

[Zachary Crockett]

The people who pay these fees and put up this collateral are usually the defendant's family members on the outside, and they're almost always women.

[Joshua Page]

You know, typically they are mothers, grandmothers, spouses, partners, former partners, sisters, and so forth.

[Zachary Crockett]

Joshua page is a professor of sociology and law at the university of Minnesota. He researches criminal punishment. He spent 18 months working as a bail bond agent. To better understand how the industry works. Page says there are sociological reasons why bail bond companies target women. They're perceived to be more sympathetic, more loyal, and ultimately more willing to put up money for loved ones in need. To find clients, bail agents will often attend the initial court hearings where judges assign bail. They'll seek out a defendant's family members in court and offer emotional support.

[Joshua Page]

The legal process is often really confusing. You know, people, lawyers, judges, in many ways, speak a different language. So what bail agents do is they, you know, strategically present themselves as somebody that can help.

[Zachary Crockett]

Many bail agents will also form quid pro quo relationships with criminal defense attorneys.

[Joshua Page]

They have this mutual referral system. The bail agents, when they talk to defendants, will try to refer them to the lawyers, and the lawyers will try to refer clients to the bail bond agents.

[Zachary Crockett]

If all else fails, they'll make cold calls.

[Joshua Page]

They'll pay attention to the jail rosters that are increasingly online. And when people's bail comes up, they'll put their name and number and birth date into a software program that provides information about family and start cold calling, saying that they're happy to help them out and get the defendant out of jail.

[Zachary Crockett]

When a family member signs a contract with a bail bond company, they become a cosigner or essentially a guarantor on a loan. And if a defendant is bailed out and decides to go on the run, that can become a problem for everyone involved. That's coming up.

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[Venture Global Representative]

Never bet against American Grit or American Energy through innovation, Venture Global is not only building some of the largest energy facilities in the world right here in the United States, but delivering American energy at a fraction of the cost in a fraction of the time. So while others are busy talking, we're busy building. That's Venture Global. That's unstoppable energy.

[Zachary Crockett]

Once the defendant is out on bail, Steven Zaluski of Affordable Bails, New York has to play enforcer.

[Stephen Zaluski]

My responsibility then is to monitor the person, make sure they go back to court.

[Zachary Crockett]

If a defendant goes on the lam, the bail bond company could be on the hook for the full bail amount. It's in Zaluski's interest to find the fugitive and bring him back in. And for that, he usually employs a bounty hunter.

[Stephen Zaluski]

We're gonna hunt this scum down.

[Joshua Page]

The only way this guy will get away from us is if he kills

[Stephen Zaluski]

himself right now and jumps into a pool of sharks.

[Zachary Crockett]

You may recognize this line of work from reality TV shows like Dog the Bounty Hunter, but Zaluski says those depictions are exaggerated.

[Stephen Zaluski]

They had three or four bail bond shows, and, you know, they made everybody look like they were crazy. What it did is it took an industry that had some legitimacy and made it look ridiculous. I mean, I don't need a guy with, you know, hair extensions and paintball gun running around to catch people. It just. It doesn't make any sense.

[Zachary Crockett]

If there's a kernel of truth in these shows, it's that bounty hunt. Hunting can sometimes be violent. There have been many documented cases of bounty hunters killing bail bond fugitives. In one case, a New Orleans man was allegedly shackled, beaten, and stuffed in a trunk. He had failed to show up to court for stealing a bottle of aspirin. But Zaluski says the typical search is resolved without incident.

[Stephen Zaluski]

So the first calls we make are to the family. What we do is we check to see if the person's been rearrested or if they're in the hospital. Within two hours of finding that out, we are at their house to see if they're home. And I'd like to tell you it's a big secret, but it's not. 90% of the people who skip bail are with a family member. The average search, to be honest with you, probably takes three to four days. If someone's really running every now and

[Zachary Crockett]

then, Zaluski's bounty hunters cut it pretty close.

[Stephen Zaluski]

So someone was on a $500,000 bail. They left. We searched for two months and could not find the person. We get a call from a retired police officer who lives in Tennessee, and he says, hey, listen, are you looking for somebody? And describes the woman. And it turns out she met this fellow they were dating, and she spouts off that she ran on a $500,000 bail in New York, and we went down to Tennessee and got her.

[Zachary Crockett]

Sometimes, Zaluski says, returned defendants will attempt to use his office as a storage unit for contraband.

[Stephen Zaluski]

People would literally come to surrender, and they bring the backpack, and I take the backpack and search it, and there were guns, drugs, And I'm like, are you kidding me? So I can get this when I get out. I said, no, you can't get the gun back and the drugs.

[Zachary Crockett]

Once a fugitive is apprehended, the bounty hunter Is typically paid 10 to 20% of the bond amount. Joshua Page, the sociologist, says family members who co sign the bail bond contract Often have to foot the bill.

[Joshua Page]

If the bail company sends a bounty hunter after a defendant, the co signer will be charged for the expense of the bounty hunter. Co signers also agree to give bail companies access to all kinds of personal records. And when a person goes missing, it's the co signer that the bail company really contacts a lot.

[Zachary Crockett]

In theory, if a fugitive isn't returned to court, the bail bond company has to pay the full amount of the bond. In the business, that's called a forfeiture. But courts rarely make these companies pay up.

[Stephen Zaluski]

We were doing an average of 60 to $100 million a year. We were doing forfeitures in pay less than 1/10 of 1%.

[Zachary Crockett]

By contrast, automobile and property insurers Pay out up to 60% of their revenue and losses. Part of the reason for these small forfeiture rates Is that bail bond firms are backed by a handful of major insurance companies that often fight tooth and nail to avoid forfeitures. And courts tend to go easy on the bail bond industry by giving them long grace periods.

[Stephen Zaluski]

With a bail bond company, when someone doesn't show up in court, the court usually gives us 60 to 90 days to return the person, Thereby avoiding forfeiture.

[Zachary Crockett]

The courts have their own economic incentive for giving bail bond companies leniency, and page says it has to do with a serious point of contention in the american justice system.

[Joshua Page]

For the courts, it's more of a matter of trying to save money and to offload responsibilities. You know, if people can't afford the bail, Then they'll remain locked up. And so, in some ways, the bail bond industry Functions as a release valve to try to deal with jail overcrowding.

[Zachary Crockett]

The court's stated purpose of bail is to give defendants a way to get out of jail before their trial, While giving the court assurance that they won't jump town. But some scholars and criminal justice activists say that charging people cash has actually served the opposite purpose. In the 1980s, with crime at record levels and politicians calling for tougher punishments, Judges started setting higher cash bail. Between 1990 and 2009, the average bail amount doubled. Since then, jails have become increasingly crowded. It's estimated that on any given day, there are 413,000 people in city and county jails who haven't yet been convicted of a crime. This pretrial incarceration comes at the expense of taxpayers. On average, it costs around $77 a day to house a single person across the entire pretrial prison population. That's nearly $12 billion in public funds each year. The problem isn't just that cash bail is set too high. Some jurisdictions set bail that is so low, it disincentivizes bail bond agents from taking on the cases.

[Stephen Zaluski]

Setting bail in those low amounts. $1,500 serves no purpose at all. We don't want to bail people out because on a thousand dollar bail, my fee is $100.

[Zachary Crockett]

These issues have led to broader cash bail reform efforts. Some states, like New York, California, Kentucky and New Mexico have cut down on cash bail by limiting the types of cases in which it can be used. Illinois recently became the first state to get rid of the practice altogether. Police there have been instructed to give out citations rather than arrest warrants where possible. And if prosecutors want to detain someone in jail before a trial, they have to present evidence at a hearing. But these alternative systems to cash bail are also very costly for taxpayers.

[Stephen Zaluski]

The theory is that you're trying to reduce the jail population because it costs money, but it also costs a lot to monitor people when they're out because you still have to have the infrastructure to do.

[Zachary Crockett]

New York, where Zaluski's firm is based, changed its bail system in 2020. Cash bail was eliminated for most nonviolent crimes, including burglary, drug offenses, and stalking. Those accused of certain crimes are free until their case is concluded, either without restriction or with some kind of monitoring system. Whether or not efforts like this have led to a reduction in crime and recidivism is a point of political contention. But it's clear that bail reform, alongside a global pandemic, has had a sizable impact on the bail bond business. The assignment of cash bail in New York has plummeted in the past few years. Lots of bond agencies have closed down, and Zaluski has felt the squeeze, too. Before 2020, affordable bails had 10 offices. Today, it's down to just four.

[Stephen Zaluski]

Originally, we were the largest bail firm in New York. With the change of the bail laws in New York, everybody became small. They wanted to make our industry the industry of the devil because, you know, we're exploiting people by taking money from them so that someone could stay out of jail. We didn't exploit people. What we did is we provided them with something that needed to be provided. But we're still alive, still in business. We. We survived.

[Zachary Crockett]

For the economics of everyday things, I'm Zachary Crockett. This episode was produced by me and Sarah Lilly and mixed by Jeremy Johnston. We had help from Daniel Moritz. Raps.

[Stephen Zaluski]

When you walk out of the courthouse and spit you should be spitting on my door.

[Zachary Crockett]

The Freakonomics Radio network.

[Joshua Page]

The hidden side of everything.