Since January, progressive advocates and law enforcement forces have been at war over Albany’s new bail law, which restricts judges from setting bail for many non-violent crimes. The law has released numerous New York defendants, who would otherwise have had to pay cash bail or fork over money to bail bonds companies to post their bonds. In other states, where bail reform has passed, bail bonds businesses have been decimated.

According to the state lobbying data, the Bail Bondsman Association of New York State spent $75,000 between January and July of 2019 lobbying a variety of state lawmakers on “bail bonds reform,” “criminal justice reform,” and a number of state bills. State filings list Mercury Public Affairs LLC as the association’s lobbyist and name a number of beneficial clients, including a group of bail industry insurers. Lobbying data from the second half of last year is not yet available, but the state Bail Bondsman Association’s Vice President Michelle Esquenazi says their advocacy efforts have continued. “We always lobby on behalf of our great industry every single day, seven days a week.”