The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-14
FEF INVESTMENTS IN BONDS.
MAGISTRATES, COURTS AFFORD
THE DAILY CHANCE.
the Bond Is Called q BOnd for Good he
havior Nets the Bcndsnan $40 tossO'
and Out or Some 1900 Gamhled In
IN Ten Years Not One. So Far as Rec
Ords show. Was Ever Forfeited.

Every year there are more than 1000
bonds for good behavior taken in the police
coirts Of Manhattan and The Bronx. They
usually are from $500 to $500 and their dura-
ton il from two to six months. They are
not worth their weight in old paper. simply
because they are not sold, but are kept
locked up in the Criminal Courts Building
in big cases where they clutter up space.
No.one ever looks+at them. Not one was
ever known 10 be forfeited. Still the Police
Magistrates keep on taking them, just as
IL they we're real. II they serve any punt-
tive purpose il il to brighten the ignorant
into behaving well.for a time.
When a husband abandons his wife, or a
boy steals candy, or a young man beats a
relative. or a woman becomes bad and
walks the streets, the Magistrate says; -
aIn have to send you to the Island or put
2 you under bonds for good behavior"
The accused person always accepts the
! bond alternative. and then there's the hunt
} for a bondsman. That isn't hard. unless
the Magistrate plays a favorite. Going on
! such a bond is the safest venture in New
York city. 10 Ia the great chance for a
! professional bondsman. He can get his
\ sz5 or $50 for giving the bond. and rest as
sured that no matter il the accused person
} does not behave well nothing will ever
lbe done about il; he will never have to make
good on the bond. If he can get twenty or
tthirty such cases in year, using one piece OF
J real estate for IL all, he can make. say. 81 900
bon his realty, and maybe more, and thus
have enough to pay all his taxes and the
interest on the mortgage, II there 70 one,
land have something besides for repairs and
! improvements. Its like picking up money.
: IL is good business on the side.
Probably no evil OF the police courts is
! more responsible for the business of pro-
fessional bondsman, except the arrest Of
women on the street at night, than is this
. farce which the Magistrates go through
! with daily Of taking bonds for good be-.
havior. A Sun reporter the other day tried
70 flnd out what became OF these bonds.
! There was great ignorance in the Criminal
I Courts Building az to their whereabouts.
J Some officials thought they were in one
! department and some in others. In the
! pond department of the District Attorneys
: Office the-only sure thing known about them
was that not one was ever sent there for
collection after being forfeited. Appar-
emily not one of the bonds was ever seen
there. Finally after a hunt of an hour or
more the reporter found that these bonds
were in the custody Of the clerk Of the
Court of Special Sessions, to which they
were sent by the information bureau of the
District Attorneys Office.
Sure, we've got 'pm . said one Of the
clerks in the clerks Office. W got great
boxes full Of 'em. You can take a look at
'em if you want to-"
Sure enough there they were, dusty,
that is the boxes, and reposing in q quiet
from which they are apparently never to
be disturbed. The reporter asked if any
record was kept Of them, and a book was
produced in which they are entered from
day TO day, az they come in. The entries
are simply daybOok entries with no in
dex. The pages Of the book are not even
numbered.
The reporter found that there were
thirty-six names on a page and he had 10
count. the pages Of the record from 1895,
the time the court began, up 10 the present
time. He found that there we're 800 pages
Of these names, giving the date, the names
of the bondsmen and the amount with
the date also when the bonds expired, and
by a process OF multiplication he learned
that there were filed 10, 7SO bonds for good
behavior which the Magistrates, courts
: had sent down in nearly eleven years. II
one ever wanted 10 tnd any of these bonds
he would rave 10 know the naine the
date approximately or else he would have
TO run over the entire ltst of entries. There
was no posting of names
For all these years these pieces OF worth
less paper have been coming to the Clerk
OF Special Sessions, and his clerks, already
, overburdened with work, have had to go
through the drudgery OF entering them in a
book In the slipshod way they were entered
when the system began. No one ever
pcared enough about them to make any
! change in the system. Gradually these
recoGnizances, as they are called solemnly,
have become q general nuisance. The
work OF grinding them out goes on how
! have been frightened into good beha vior,
but thousands upon thousands have not.
1t has been a common sight TO see women
of b street arrested time and again
\ while they we're under bonds Tor good be-
havior. They simply hire another bonds
imam or perhaps the same one over again.
The Magistrates rotate in the courts. A
new Magistrate Ia on the bench. The
epolice and some Of the clerks might recognize
the old offenders and remainder that they
are already under bond, but 1t is well some
times when graft il going around not to
have too good a memory;
Really one Of these good behavior bonds
, should be a most serious obligation. Good
behavior is a general term, IL rests with
Ii Lie Nth&lsbTdbc " soy Who v SCCh via "
Getting slightly tipsy might DO regarded
! az bad behavior by one Magistrate and as
p~ardonable by another. Being noisy on
the street OF otherwise boisterous might be
bad behavior, according TO the way these
things are LOOKED at, and the man who
guarantees 20 pay a certain sum to the
People OF the State OF New. York" m case
the defendant forgets how TO behave well
it might be thought was taking a mighty
big risk.
But the bond has another strong clause.
II reads:
Nov, therefore, the condition of the
above recognizance IN such that il 1.-THE
Defendant shall be OF good behavior to-
ward the People OF the State OF New York,
and particularly toward THE plaintiff for the
term of - months next ensusing from
the date hereof, then the above reOognizance
shah he void. otherwise shall be and remain
in full force and virtue"
Solemn words and that IL all. The persons
particularly toward" whom the defendants
shall behave well in addition to the People
of the State OF New York never report any
misbehav ior and why therefore should
the People OF the state bother their heads
about looking after the mattcrp The SUN
reporter asked IL there wa ever any record
Of any forfeiture Of these bonds. One
clerk thought he recalled that there had