About NABA
The grassroots national organization for the secured bail profession
Who we are
The National Association of Bail Agents is the grassroots national organization for the secured bail profession.
Our members are family-owned bail offices, single-shop operators, multi-generational agencies, recovery teams working out of pickup trucks, surety company representatives, and state association leaders. Veterans. Retired law enforcement. Single parents. Immigrants. Working people who post bonds, chase skips, and answer the phone at three in the morning when a family member needs help.
We are the people who do the work.
Our mission
NABA exists to give the secured bail profession a unified national voice — at the federal level, in coordination with state associations, and on behalf of every working agent and recovery professional who shows up for their community.
Secured bail is the most effective pretrial release mechanism available to the justice system. When an agent writes a bond, that agent personally guarantees the defendant's appearance in court — at zero cost to taxpayers. No public program offers that accountability. No reform proposal has matched it.
We exist to make sure legislators, courts, sureties, and the public understand the difference.
Federal advocacy
Congressional testimony. Federal agency engagement. Coalition building with allied organizations. We show up where decisions get made.
State-level coordination
Every bail reform fight starts in a state capitol. NABA works hand-in-hand with state associations — large and small — to share intelligence, draft model language, and stand together when a state goes under attack. Smaller state associations get the same support as the largest ones. Rural and small-state agents are not an afterthought here; they are the backbone of this association.
Legislative intelligence
Real-time monitoring of bail and pretrial legislation in all 50 states. Members get alerts, model language, talking points, and the underlying data the moment a threat emerges — not weeks later, when the bill is already on the floor.
Professional standards
Training resources, continuing education, best practices, and professional development for bail agents, agency owners, and recovery professionals at every level — from the new licensee writing her first bond to the agency owner running multiple locations across multiple states.
Member directory
A searchable national directory connecting families and defendants with licensed bail and recovery professionals in their area.
Conferences and community
Our annual Spring Conference brings the profession together for education, networking, advocacy planning, and the kind of in-person relationships that build a movement. Past conferences have been hosted in partnership with state associations, by design — because NABA is a coalition, not a headquarters.
Recovery agents are full members. Period.
Our profession has two arms.
Bail agents post the bond. Recovery agents bring back the people who don't show up. Both functions are protected by the same constitutional right to bail. Both are essential to making secured release work. Both are under the same legislative attack.
For decades, the national conversation around bail treated recovery agents as a separate world — sometimes welcomed at the convention, rarely included in governance, almost never granted full membership status.
NABA was built to fix that.
Under our bylaws, licensed recovery agents are full members of the association, with the same voice and the same rights as any bail agent. The Sergeant at Arms seat on our Board of Directors is reserved for a recovery agent. The Ethics Committee is co-chaired by a recovery agent. We maintain a standing Fugitive Recovery Committee that reports directly to the Board.
This is not symbolic. It is structural. When you look at NABA's leadership, you see recovery agents at the decision-making table — because we cannot defend the secured bail system without defending the entire profession that makes it work.
If you are a licensed recovery agent, you are not a guest at NABA. You are a member.
Our story
Founded in a moment that demanded it
NABA was founded in October 2020. The timing was not an accident.
The secured bail profession was under attack in ways it had never been before. New York's bail reform law had just taken effect on January 1, 2020, eliminating cash bail for most cases and gutting the agencies that had served those communities for generations. California voters were preparing to vote on a measure to end cash bail statewide. Illinois was drafting legislation that would later become the Pretrial Fairness Act. New Jersey had already gone first. The pattern was clear, coordinated, and well-funded.
At the same time, COVID-19 had shut down the in-person conferences where our profession had traditionally come together. Beth Chapman, who had given so much of her life to defending the right to bail, had passed away in June 2019. The profession needed coordination. The profession needed a voice. The profession needed it then.
A small group of agents stepped up. They were not strangers to this work — they were already running their own state associations, already testifying in their own legislatures, already losing offices and laying off staff because of policies pushed by people who had never written a bond in their lives. Working through the pandemic, they drafted bylaws, recruited a founding board, and on October 1, 2020, the National Association of Bail Agents, Inc. was established.
The first elected board was seated at the 2021 Membership Meeting, and the association has been growing — methodically, by word of mouth, agency by agency — ever since.
Where we are today
NABA continues to grow. The 2026 Spring Conference in Atlanta — co-hosted with the Georgia Association of Professional Bondsmen — drew members from across the country for education, advocacy, and the kind of in-person community that makes this work sustainable.
We have submitted comments on federal and state pretrial proposals, filed regulatory complaints on behalf of members, supported state associations in their own legislative fights, and built the legislative-tracking infrastructure that smaller state associations could never afford to build alone.
The work is just getting started.
Leadership
NABA is governed by an elected Board of Directors representing the geographic and operational diversity of the profession.
Michelle Esquenazi
President
FL
John J. Looney Sr.
Executive Vice President
MT
Tommy Weatherholtz Jr.
Senior Vice President
WV
Charles Chase III
Vice President
GA
Kelly Winkles
Secretary
GA
Wendy Saler-Fordin
Treasurer
NY
Michael Woody
Sergeant at Arms
NC
Every Board member is a working bail or recovery professional. Every Board member is accountable to the membership. Every Board member can be reached by any member who picks up the phone.
That's the kind of organization this is.
State associations
NABA partners with state associations across the country. State-level advocacy happens at the MTBAA, GAPB, NCBAA, CBAA, TAPBA, PBT, FSAA, and dozens of other organizations — NABA coordinates the national strategy. States shown with reduced opacity have no known active association or have abolished commercial bail.
Bail Bonding Association of Alabama
BBAA — status uncertain; listed in industry directories
No known state association
Licensed through AK Division of Insurance
Arizona Bail Bondsmen Association
AZBBA — status uncertain; no current official website confirmed
Arkansas Professional Bail Association
APBA
California Bail Agents Association
CBAA — est. 1979
Professional Bail Agents of Colorado
PBAC — status uncertain; corporate record exists
Bail Association of Connecticut
BAC
No known state association
Regulated by DE courts
No commercial bail
Government-run pretrial release (PSA)
Florida Bail Agents Association
FBAA
Georgia Association of Professional Bondsmen
GAPB
Professional Bail Agents of Hawaii
PBAH — est. 1982
Professional Bail Agents of Idaho
PBAI — also: Idaho Bail Coalition
No commercial bail
Commercial bail banned 1963; cash bail abolished 2023 (SAFE-T Act)
Indiana Surety Bail Agents Association
ISBAA
Iowa Bail Bond Association
IBBA — IRS filings active; no current website confirmed
Kansas Bail Agents Association
KBAA — est. 2002
No commercial bail
Commercial bail outlawed since 1976
Association of Louisiana Bail Underwriters
ALBU — est. 1990
No commercial bail
Commercial bail bondsmen not permitted
No known active association
Historical associations forfeited; no current activity confirmed
No commercial bail
Commercial bail bonding prohibited
Michigan Professional Bail Agents Association
MPBAA — est. 2009
Minnesota Professional Bail Bond Association
MNPBBA — IRS filings active; website may be dormant
Mississippi Bail Agents Association
MBAA
Missouri Alliance of Professional Bail Agents
MAPBA
Montana Bail Agents Association
MTBAA
No known state association
Licensed through NE Dept of Insurance
No known active association
Former associations now inactive/revoked
No known state association
Licensed through NH Insurance Dept
New Jersey Bail Association
NJBA — status uncertain post-2017 bail reform
Bail Bond Association of New Mexico
BBANM — est. 2013
New York State Bail Association
NYSBA
North Carolina Bail Agents Association
NCBAA — est. 1992
No known state association
Licensed through ND Insurance Dept
Ohio Bail Agents Association
OBAA — also: OSBBA and Ohio Professional Bail Association
Oklahoma Bondsman Association
OBA
No commercial bail
Commercial bail abolished since 1974
Pennsylvania Association of Bail Agents
PABA
No known state association
Regulated by RI Superior Court
South Carolina Bail Agents Association
SCBAA
No known state association
Licensed through SD Division of Insurance
Tennessee Association of Professional Bail Agents
TAPBA — est. 1975
Professional Bondsmen of Texas
PBT — est. 1970
Utah Association of Professional Bondsmen and Agents
UAPBA — IRS filings active through 2024; no current website
No known state association
Licensed through VT Dept of Financial Regulation
Virginia Bail Association
VBA — active VA SCC entity; no full official website confirmed
Washington State Bail Agents' Association
WSBAA
West Virginia Bail Association
WVBA — no official website
No commercial bail
Commercial bail banned since 1979
No known state association
Licensed through WY Dept of Insurance
Is your state association not listed? Let us know and we'll add it.
Join NABA
If you write bonds, recover fugitives, run an agency, represent a surety, or lead a state association — and you believe the secured bail profession deserves a fighting national voice — we want you in.
Membership is open. Recovery agents are welcome as full members. Smaller state associations are welcome as partners. Independent agents are welcome at the same table as multi-state agencies.