Commercial bail no longer exists in Illinois, Kentucky, Oregon, and Wisconsin, is effectively absent in Washington D.C., and has been sharply reduced by reform in New Jersey, New York, and New Mexico. Illinois went furthest: its Pretrial Fairness Act ended cash bail statewide in September 2023, the first state to eliminate it entirely. In most other states, surety bail remains how pretrial release commonly works. For anyone considering this career, the honest first step is placing your state on that map before spending a dollar on licensing.
Most sites selling bail agent courses will not lead with this, which is exactly why we do. This is the plain-language map of where the industry stands, what the reform mechanisms actually are, and how to read your own state's trajectory honestly. It is not a political argument for or against reform; it is the market reality a new agent is walking into, said out loud.
Which states have no commercial bail at all?
- Illinois. Abolished commercial bail bonding back in 1963, and then eliminated cash bail entirely when the Pretrial Fairness Act (part of the SAFE-T Act) took effect on September 18, 2023, after the Illinois Supreme Court upheld it. Release decisions are made by judges on risk, administered through the courts (illinoiscourts.gov). There is no bail agent trade here.
- Kentucky. Banned commercial bail bonding in 1976; pretrial services within the Court of Justice (kycourts.gov) handles release. No trade here either.
- Oregon. Replaced commercial bail in 1974 with a security deposit system where defendants post a percentage directly with the court (courts.oregon.gov).
- Wisconsin. Abolished commercial bonding in 1979; deposits go to the court system (wicourts.gov).
- Washington D.C. Since the early 1990s the District has released nearly all defendants under supervision by its Pretrial Services Agency rather than money bond. D.C. is the example reformers cite, and for a would-be agent it is a closed market.
Which states kept money bail but shrank the commercial market?
- New Jersey. The 2017 Criminal Justice Reform, enacted by statute and constitutional amendment, moved the state to risk-based release with money bail as a rare last resort. The licensing framework still exists at the Department of Banking and Insurance, but the commercial market is minimal. Treat New Jersey as a reform state, not an opportunity state.
- New York. The 2019 reforms (effective 2020, amended since) eliminated cash bail for most misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies. Bail agents still license through the Department of Financial Services and bonds are still written on qualifying charges, but the addressable market shrank substantially and remains politically contested.
- New Mexico. A 2016 constitutional amendment ended detention purely for inability to pay and pushed courts toward non-monetary conditions; the commercial trade contracted accordingly (Office of Superintendent of Insurance).
- Maryland. A 2017 court rule directed judges toward the least onerous release conditions, which reduced bond volume; agents still license through the Maryland Insurance Administration.
- Court-centered small markets. Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, Nebraska, and Rhode Island run release through courts, bail commissioners or magistrates, or deposit practice to the point that commercial bail is rare. If you live in one of these, confirm the current reality with the authority before planning anything; our free state lookup names the right office.
What happened in California, the biggest bail market?
California is the best case study in how contested this landscape is. The legislature passed SB 10 in 2018 to replace money bail with risk assessment, the bail industry forced it to a referendum, and in November 2020 voters rejected the replacement (Proposition 25), so commercial bail survived. Separately, the California Supreme Court's In re Humphrey decision in 2021 requires courts to consider a defendant's ability to pay when setting bail, which has pushed amounts down in many cases, and several counties have experimented with low or zero bail schedules. The trade is alive, licensed by the California Department of Insurance, and operating in a market that is measurably tighter than its folklore.
Where is surety bail still the standard?
Across most of the South, the Mountain West, the Plains, and much of the Midwest, surety bail remains the ordinary mechanism of pretrial release, agents are actively licensed, and the insurance machinery described in our surety guide functions as it has for decades. States like Texas, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Oklahoma, and the Carolinas maintain substantial commercial bail markets with their own licensing quirks (county bail bond boards in Texas, sheriff approval layers in Georgia, court approval in Tennessee). That is a description of the present, not a promise about the future: the honest way to hold this career is knowing that its legal foundation is legislated, and legislation moves.
How do you track your own state's trajectory honestly?
- Follow the bills, not the headlines. The National Conference of State Legislatures tracks pretrial and bail legislation neutrally, state by state.
- Read the data, not the marketing. The Bureau of Justice Statistics publishes pretrial release research; your state court system often publishes its own caseload statistics.
- Ask the people with money in it. Your state bail association (findable through PBUS) and any general agent serving your state know exactly which way local volume is moving.
- Watch the county level. Zero-bail schedules, citation-release policies, and pretrial services expansion often arrive county by county before they arrive as state law.
What does this mean if you still want in?
It means underwriting your own career the way you would underwrite a bond. If you live in an abolition state, the answer is simply no, and any school selling you a course there is selling a fiction. If you live in a reform state, size the real market before spending: fewer bondable charges means fewer bonds, and the agents who remain compete hard for them. If you live in a standard-practice state, the trade is real, the entry path is learnable, and the risk you should respect most is not reform but your own forfeitures, which is what the entry guide and the Bail and Recovery Agent Kit are built around. Whatever your state, the kit tells you the truth about it by name, because a $149 document that pretends every state is open would be worth nothing.
Frequently asked questions
Which was the first state to eliminate cash bail completely?
Illinois, when the Pretrial Fairness Act took effect on September 18, 2023. Commercial bail bonding there had already been abolished in 1963; the 2023 change removed cash bail itself.
Is bail reform federal or state law?
Pretrial release for state charges is governed state by state, which is why the map is a patchwork. The federal courts have operated primarily on non-financial release conditions since the Bail Reform Act of 1984, and commercial bonds play essentially no role in federal practice.
Did California end cash bail?
No. Voters rejected the replacement system in November 2020 (Proposition 25), so commercial bail continues, shaped by the ability-to-pay requirements of the 2021 Humphrey decision.
Should I still become a bail agent in a reform state?
Run it like an underwriting decision: confirm the current market with your state's licensing authority and local agents, size the bondable caseload honestly, and only spend what the evidence supports. We would rather talk you out of a dead-end state than sell you optimism about one.