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Face To Face with the Bounty Hunters

BBC Three Presents Stacey Dooley investigates bounty hunters in the USA as they hunt down fugitives who have skipped bail, bringing them back to face justice. On the outskirts of Denver Colorado, Stacey immerses herself in the world of a group of bounty hunters, led by husband and wife duo Scott and Lydia Gribble. They hunt down fugitives every day, locking up as many as eleven bail dodgers a week. She sees them force their way into properties, interrogate accomplices and taser and handcuff defendants who’ve gone on the run. Stacey sees the lengths the bounty hunters will go to capture a fugitive and get paid. In America, defendants who are too poor to bail themselves out of jail rely on bondsmen to loan them their bail money. But when they don’t play by the rules the bondsmen can send bounty hunters to go find them and bring them back to court – so the bondsman doesn’t lose his money. These bounty hunters have sweeping powers and in all states but four (Wisconsin, Illinois, Kentucky and Oregon), nearly anyone, with very little training, can pick up a gun and hunt down fugitives who have gone on the run. Bounty hunters have been part of the American justice system since the 1800s, a system which uses money to make sure people don’t run away after they’ve been charged with a crime. And if defendants do go on the run, paying bounty hunters to go get them means they won’t get away. It’s a $14 billion private industry that does the job that in the UK falls to the government and police, with bondsmen making money from every defendant who needs their help and bounty hunters making money from every fugitive they capture. Alongside the bounty hunting profession, Stacey learns how the commercial bail system works in America. Robert Boykin is the owner of Hope Bail Bonds. He pays Scott and the gang to hunt down fugitives who have skipped on the bail he has loaned the defendants, for a price. Robert says he is helping people - getting defendants out of jail who

English suomi
  • Originally Aired September 22, 2019
  • Runtime 51 minutes
  • Production Code p07h14nt
  • Network BBC Three
  • Created May 27, 2021 by
    ncaracciolo
  • Modified February 7, 2024 by
    maxtherabbit