His job: Helping clients bond out of jail -- about 400 to 500 a month.
It's not an easy task. Adkerson works around the clock. In fact, he's spent the last 42 Christmases, New Years and Thanksgiving days visiting the Anchorage jail.
"They say every night is a Saturday night in the bail bond business. You never know what's going to happen," he said.
Each client pays 10 percent of the set bail plus collateral for his services.
That makes Adkerson responsible for the defendant to show up in court. If not, he'll have to come up with the whole set bail amount.
"We do not make a dime out of bonds that are forfeited. We don't want them forfeited; we want people to show up. Our bond fees come from the 10 percent that they pay," he said.
Work for Adkerson means walking through courtroom doors day after day. Inside, you can always find him sitting in the corner by the door.
He jots down notes, and sometimes keeps track of any future clients.
"Most of these guys, when they go back to the court, they'll call one of the bonding companies, we usually get quite a few calls, and they'll make arrangements to contact their family and friends to see to it that they can be released on bond," he said.
After working for four decades, Adkerson's seen plenty of changes: More females trying to bail out, more gang-related cases and a different monetary bond.
"The amount of the bonds have increased because… way back then there weren't as many heinous crimes. A guy for armed robbery, they'd probably set bail at $3,000. Now they'll set a bail at $20,000," he said.
Behind the bench, Judge Phillip Volland has also seen some changes over the years. He says he's seen an increase in performance bonds and a decrease in third-party custodian bonds.
Case characteristics haven't changed much, but about one-third consist of serious felonies.
"They've gotten considerably more in number. When I started on the criminal bench there were just three judges doing criminal cases in Anchorage; now there are five," Volland said.
Adkerson says his job can help people.
"A lot of these guys are working. They have to get out and support their families. Some of these guys have five or six kids, and by being in jail, who's going to pay the bills and when they do get out, their job's gone," he said.
Adkerson says that can open the door for people to walk through for a second chance in life.
He says the United States is the only nation in the world that has bail bonding, and that Alaska is the only state that allows a third-party custodian bail.
Currently in the Legislature, Senate Bill 252 would revise the current state bail statutes.
It asks for stricter third-party custodian standards and will not give release conditions to defendants who are convicted of a sexual felony or a Class B or C felony if they had one in the last 10 years.
Contact Christine Kim at ckim@ktuu.com
