A bill would limit community bail funds and others to only bailing out three defendants a year, and while similar bills have come in recent years, this one is the first to gain any traction.
The bill is to prevent “gang bangers” from bailing out friends, said state Sen. Brent Taylor (R-Memphis), the bill’s sponsor. The only people who should be able to post bail, he said, should be a bail bondsman, a family member, or an employer — someone who has a vested interest in getting that person out of jail.”
“What this is getting at is to prevent the gang bangers from showing up and bailing their compatriot out of jail and getting right back out and committing additional crimes,” Taylor said in a Senate hearing last month.
Taylor moved the bill back to committee from the Senate floor Monday. A House committee is expected to review it Wednesday.
A similar bill was passed in Georgia in 2024. The law drew a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia and others, citing First Amendment rights. A federal judge blocked the part of the law that put restrictions on the number of defendants that could be bailed out in a year. That part of the law remains blocked as the state presses an appeal on the matter in a higher court.
Josh Spickler, executive director of Just City, said similar bills have been filed here before. While he was not surprised to see that it was filed again this year, he was surprised to see the bill get traction.
He said nothing in the bill now would stop individuals — presumably like the gang members Taylor referenced — from posting bail for anyone else. But he said the House debates on the bill have made it clear that the legislation is aimed at community bail funds just like the one Just City has operated for the last eight years.
The House sponsor, Rep. Charlie Baum (R-Murfreesboro), said the bill came with high rates of bailed-out defendants failing to appear at court. Spickler said he can’t speak for other funds, but Just City clients have made 98 percent of their court appearances.
“Lawmakers, like Sen. Taylor, don’t want people to get out on pre-trial [release],” Spickler said. “They want to change the law. They want to change the presumption that has been in state law for 40 years that people who are charged with an offense, who are presumed innocent, have a right to bail and have a right to be released.”
Just City’s fund paid 313 bail bonds last year, Spickler said, “out of tens of thousands of arrests.” He wondered how Taylor and others thought this bill would make much difference.
In the Senate hearing last month, state Sen. London Lamar (D-Memphis) said the restrictions would create a “system of classism” as poor defendants have to sit in jail.
“This won’t just target gang members, this targets everybody,” Lamar said. “This targets everybody in the judicial system regardless of what the crime is: how big, how small, how violent, nonviolent, petty, or serious. It doesn’t work well.”