Bail Money

What is Bail Money?

Bail Money, what is it? How does it work? You might not be in jail, but if you're reading this, you either know someone that's been arrested or maybe your just interested in the ways of the world.

Bail Money is when a judge of the court determines a bail amount in the form of cash or collateral that someone is required to pay before they can be released from jail.

That doesn't entirely cover it for you, does it? Let me explain this better. Bail was intended to help get someone out of jail so that they could prepare for their case.

But, it's easy for someone being released to flee rather than show up for their court date. So in order to both help defendants out of jail and ensure that they show up to court, bail was put in place. This way, if they pay the bail amount to the court, bail money will be returned once the hearing has completed. Nobody wants to lose money they could easily have back in their bank account.

This means when someone has to wait a month before their trial reaches the court, they won't have to be left waiting in a jail cell, which is especially nice for those that are only put in jail for minor offenses.

However, if someone does not show up to court none of their money will be returned to them after their hearing has completed and they will be placed back in jail. And if they are unable to attend their hearing it is likely that they will have to return to jail without the opportunity for bail.

Thank goodness for the 8th amendment against cruel or unusual punishments. Because of this amendment, excessive bail amounts can not be given to someone with a low income. And it protects anyone from paying too much bail money.

Now you might be thinking, why let someone out of jail if they were put there for committing a crime? It's scary to think that criminals can be released after paying money to the state. But what you probably don't know is that a judge can deny someone's bail.

This is usually done if there is valid evidence that the defendant is guilty, if they are a repeat felon, or if there is reason to believe they will harm the community. Not everyone gets to have a chance to be released on bail, which is a relief if you're thinking of those repeat offenders.

This law wasn't put in place to cause harm to the community. It's there because not everyone placed in jail in guilty of a crime. And because court cases can take months or even years to go to trial it would be cruel to make someone whos waiting on a traffic case stay in jail for that long while they wait.

For those that can't afford to pay their bail amount, there's another option. Anyone unable to pay off their bail could instead hire a Bail Bondsman to help them pay it off. The catch was that they would have to pay a 10% of the initial bail fee to the bail bond company. Failure to do so means returning to jail.

If someone decides to hire a Bail Bondsman, the bondsman will be in charge of ensuring that the prisoner shows up to their court date on time, which can mean giving them a ride, giving them reminders before their court date, and many other things as well.

Failure to show up to court or failure to pay back your bail bondsman means going straight back to jail. In fact they'll even have a bounty hunter chase down the defendant to bring him back to jail.