Bail bond agency moves into Uptowne

Sarah Ein­se­len

AA Amer­i­can Bail Bonds, new occu­pants as of Octo­ber in the Uptowne build­ing at 120 Hard­ing Way East, got a PT Cruiser wrapped this week to func­tion as a mov­ing billboard.

By Sarah Einselen

Inquirer Reporter

This past Octo­ber, a new black-and-pink sign began swing­ing from its rod over the entrance to the Uptowne build­ing at 120 Hard­ing Way East, announc­ing the loca­tion of the new office of AA Amer­i­can Bail Bonds, oper­ated by Galion res­i­dent Gina Powell.

Pow­ell, who has been a bail bonds­man for the last seven years, said the loca­tion was per­fect because it was right in the mid­dle of the area where she does business—Crawford and Rich­land coun­ties are her busiest coun­ties, she said, with Mar­ion com­ing in third. Before, she worked out of offices in Mans­field, so she also liked work­ing much closer to home, she said. And the AA in the name doesn’t stand for any­thing, said Pow­ell. It was added to put her office at the top of the phone book listings.

The Galion bonds­man with pink hand­cuffs and a small pink pis­tol she got for Christ­mas began her career the bail bond busi­ness because she wanted to enter law enforce­ment but still run her own busi­ness, she said.

“We’re con­sid­ered offi­cers of the court,” she explained. Although mis­de­meanor and felony offend­ers can be jailed after their arrest until the trail is com­pleted, Ohio law also allows for them to be set free if bond is posted, usu­ally sev­eral thou­sand dollars.

That’s where a bonds­man comes in. A bonds­man puts up the cost of bail when some­one is jailed, then the jailed offender is set free on the promise that the bail money will be for­feited if the offender is doesn’t show up for court dates after get­ting out. Oth­er­wise, the bond payer gets the money back at the con­clu­sion of the trial.

“When we write those bonds, we take respon­si­bil­ity that that per­son will show up for each and every court date,” Pow­ell said. A co-signer on the bond, usu­ally a fam­ily mem­ber of the jailed per­son, pays the bondsman’s fee and is also held respon­si­ble if an offender skips a court appearance.

Pow­ell says her job helps peo­ple find jus­tice if they’ve been jailed. “It’s not my place to judge some­body whether they’re inno­cent or guilty,” she stated. “That’s what the court’s for. Every­body deserves a sec­ond chance.”

Bond clients have to check in with Pow­ell each week via phone dur­ing the court case. And if one does “jump bond,” or skip a court date, after being set free, she’ll have to track them down. She had seven “skips” out of hun­dreds of court dates last year, she said, and found all seven peo­ple within two days.

Some­times, her job takes her into “some pretty scary places,” she admit­ted. And most of her clients are peo­ple who’ve been arrested on drug-related charges, whether for felonies or mis­de­meanors directly related to drugs or for thefts that they were accused of com­mit­ting to fund their drug habits.

“It’s crazy, and I don’t under­stand it,” Pow­ell said. But she’s had fam­ily die from drug over­doses, so she tries to help her clients avoid that same fate. “I lec­ture them while they’re in jail and I edu­cate their par­ents,” she said. Some­times she advises the par­ents of a jailed per­son that yes, she will bail the per­son out, but it’s in their best inter­est to let the offender stay in jail a few days to get over the imme­di­ate with­drawal pains.

She also invites fam­ily mem­bers of drug addicts to visit a site she founded In mem­ory of one fam­ily mem­ber who died in 2008 of a drug over­dose. B.A.D., or Bonds­mans Against Drugs, at bailbondsmansagainstdrugs.com is her ongo­ing project. It includes the obit­u­ar­ies of known over­dose vic­tims in a memo­r­ial sec­tion as well as infor­ma­tion on how to spot drug addiction.

“If I can just save one per­son from over­dos­ing, I feel like I’ve accom­plished some­thing,” she said.

Posted by Sarah Einselen on Jan 26 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.