Jerry Watson

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Jerry Watson is the Senior Legal Counsel for the American Bail Coalition.[1] He is also Chief Legal Officer to Allegheny Casualty International Fidelity Associated Bond, Senior Vice-President and Legal Counsel, Bail, at IFIC and as National Legal Counsel for ACC. He has also served as General Counsel of the American Bail Coalition since its founding and is a member of the Bail Advisory Council of the Surety and Fidelity Association of America (SFAA).[2]

The American Bail Coalition (ABC) is a group of "premier underwriters of criminal court appearance bonds. We have formed a national organization, primarily to perform a two-pronged task to educate local government on the benefits of commercial bail bonding and to advance the interests of the member companies' many retail agents."[3]

Ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council

Watson is the immediate past Chairman of the corporate ("Private Enterprise" board of directors of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and is the Chairman Emeritus on the Private Enterprise Board as of 2011.[4]

Watson spoke on pretrial release at the 2002 ALEC Annual Meeting in Orlando, FL on August 9, 2002.

Watson spoke on the use of bail bonds for "safe early release of prisoners" at the Annual Meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council in Philadelphia, PA, July 25 - 27, 2007.

About ALEC
ALEC is a corporate bill mill. It is not just a lobby or a front group; it is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, corporations hand state legislators their wishlists to benefit their bottom line. Corporations fund almost all of ALEC's operations. They pay for a seat on ALEC task forces where corporate lobbyists and special interest reps vote with elected officials to approve “model” bills. Learn more at the Center for Media and Democracy's ALECexposed.org, and check out breaking news on our ExposedbyCMD.org site.

Watson also received the ALEC Leadership Award at ALEC's 37th Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA on August 2010. "Watson has chaired numerous board committees and served as ALEC’s Private Enterprise Board Chairman 2006-2008. His participation in this organization began through his position as Senior Legal Counsel for The American Bail Coalition. ABC is comprised of the nation’s bail surety insurance companies. Watson serves as the Chief Legal Officer of AIA, the nation’s largest and oldest underwriters of bail insurance."[5]

Here is a video of Watson speaking at the 2008 ALEC Annual Meeting:

Jerry Watson, 2008 ALEC Annual Meeting

Articles and resources

Related SourceWatch articles

References

  1. "Bail Bond Industry Leader, Jerry Watson, Honored by National Legislative Organization," "PRWeb.com", August 27, 2010
  2. Jerry Watson, "Behind the Paper Blog with Jerry Watson," personal blog profile, accessed July 7, 2011
  3. American Bail Coalition, "Introduction ABC," organizational website, accessed July 7, 2011
  4. American Legislative Exchange Council, Private Enterprise Board, organizational website, accessed July 8, 2011
  5. "Bail Bond Industry Leader, Jerry Watson, Honored by National Legislative Organization," "PRWeb.com", August 27, 2010

External resources

External articles

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