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SCAN THE CODE FOR MORE PHOTOS AND AN IN DEPTH INTERVIEW.
BUILDING BONDS
TASHA AND JOANNA // JOHN ALOSZKA
From urging reform to making sure clients are taken care of, two Jacksonville women are changing the face of bail bonds. Bail bond company owners Joanna Peterson and Tasha Thomas have seen the reality shows about the bail bonds industry. And the terrible commercials. Those shows get ratings and those ads get clients--they also do damage to their profession. For every television advertisement selling any types of legal services, there are many in the industry who loathe the fast food model of justice. You won’t see Joanna or Tasha riding a cartoon jaguar to the jail or pretending to be something they aren’t. They have too much work to do and too many people to help. Thomas bailed out most of the people who were arrested by the police at a recent protest downtown. Nearly all of those charges were dropped, but every known case came with a bond. Santana Bernardo was filming the protests and arrests on the sidewalk across from the courthouse when he was tackled, arrested, jailed for the first time in his life. He needed to post bond to get out of a jail infected with COVID-19, and where
inmates have been brutally beaten by fellow inmates for simply wanting to make a phone call. Thomas was there to bail him out. They work all hours. “It’s about helping people reenter back into society, getting a job, moving on and being beneficial in society,” says Peterson. Thomas, a former social worker, desires to start a program to help people overcome the odds stacked against those who become involved with the criminal justice system. Refusing the stereotype made popular on reality television, “I am a listening ear. You may have a defendant on drugs or with no family,” Thomas says. She tells of a client with nowhere else to go and plenty of reasons to lose hope. She invited him over for Thanksgiving dinner. “It’s building relationships, Tasha says. “It’s building bonds… some of the people I have encountered are younger people and a majority of African American descent. I am out there in the community because I was raised in the
same community. People tend to respect you if you respect them. I just need you to make sure you go to court. The rest we can work out.” “We provide transportation. We make sure you can get to court, get a zoom [account] or a phone,” Peterson adds. The criminal justice system is imperfect. In fact, it’s quite broken. Some aspects haven’t changed since the 1800’s. Some haven’t changed in over 1000 years; monetary bail is one of those antiquities most of us don’t know much about. In its simplest form, bail is the court system’s method of assuring attendance and compliance in exchange for the privilege of not remaining in jail until trial. The concept is this: yes, you are innocent until proven guilty, but the government needs you to make a significant financial deposit in your innocence to make sure you come back to court. Making matters worse, historically, it was the sheriff who decided if you got bail or not, and for how much. Board certified criminal trial attorney
