To get their clients out of jail, bail bond agents put up bonds. The entire amount isn’t paid at once. Instead, a percentage is put up to garner a release. It’s up to the person bailed out of jail to then show up to their court date. If they skip out on bail, the bail bondsman will likely send a bounty hunter to look for them because they then lose the money they put up.
Paying bail to get out of jail is done after a bond hearing. Whats a bond hearing? It’s when the judge determines whether a person should be let out on bail as they await trial. This is typically determined by the person’s crime as well as whether they’re a flight risk. What is the bond amount? That again depends on the nature of the crime. You may only need $20 to post bail or several thousand dollars. If you get arrested while out on bail, you automatically forfeit your right to bail, so it’s a good idea to keep a low profile.
This is more than an oops moment — after Ebony Russell paid $2,000 to a bail bondsman to free her son, the bail bondsman did let out Darren Stokes — but the wrong one. Instead of releasing Darren Stokes, age 18, the bondsman quickly paid the necessary fee for an ex-con with a lengthy rap sheet — Darren Stokes, age 57. The younger Stokes was stuck in jail for another weeks as a result.
According to the NY Daily News, though, luck didn’t last for older, accidentally released Stokes. Just two weeks after his release, Stokes was arrested while trying to rob a store, which only added to his sheet (he was originally in jail for trying to steal two coats, collectively worth over a thousand dollars, from a local Bloomingdale’s in late January).
The younger Stokes was originally in jail because of gun charges. The teen, while free now, may be back in prison sooner than later — he is currently wanted for multiple felony cases. One case involved spending over $900 using a forged credit card. Stokes? bail bond agency did not comment to the Ny Daily News about the case.
Although it may seem like only hardened criminals need the services of a bail bond service, you would be surprised at how popular this service is. About 52% of American win will be arrested at least once during the course of their lives, for example.
So why do you need bail? No matter what your offense or potential defense, bail helps ensure that defendants come back for their court appearances that occur weeks or months later. This ensures that jails don?t need to keep thousands of people unnecessarily (and potentially illegally) detained before they?ve been convicted of something, and also ensures that potentially innocent people are not kept from working jobs and taking care of their family and everything else they need to do prior to their court appearance.
Bail is set to be a significantly high amount so that, if the defendant decides to skip out on their case, they would have difficulty evading the law owing to having few resources available. This is also why those convicted of a crime often must surrender their passports.
You may think that you’ll never need the assistance of a bail bondsman — until the day comes and it does happen to you. In which case, make sure you use the services of a bonds service with an established reputation so that no unfortunate mix ups will occur!
