Sometimes, people end up getting arrested for no real reason at all. This is generally what happens when somebody happens to be running with the wrong crowd and, because of who their associated with, the end up being charged for something that they had nothing to do with. This can create quite a nightmare. The nightmare is that the person, even if they are acquitted of the charges or the charges are dropped altogether, ends up sitting in jail until they can be seen in court. There is a way to remedy this: bail.
What Is Bail?
Everyone’s heard of bail, but not that many people likely know what it really is or why it exists. Even though the US justice system is set up to favor the rights of the accused over the rights of the prosecution, people end up getting charged with crimes they didn’t commit every single day. The idea behind allowing people to bail themselves out of jail is to make certain that people aren’t put through the hardship of being held in custody without being given an opportunity to establish their innocence.
Going to jail is a much different thing than going to prison. Nonetheless, sitting in jail while your employer is wondering where you are and why you haven’t called, while your rent is not getting paid and while you have no income is most certainly punishing. To make certain that people aren’t put through this unnecessarily, the bail system exists.
Paying Bail
If a judge has allowed someone to post bail and get released, there are essentially two ways that the person can do that. First, they can pay the full amount of the bail out of their own money, which is, of course, completely impossible for some people, particularly if the bail amount is set very high.
The second thing that they can do is to pay a bail bondsman. That bondsman, for a percentage of the bail required rather than the full amount, will issue a surety bond that guarantees that the person will show up in court but that allows the person to get out of jail in the meantime.
If you do this for someone, make certain that they know how important it is for them to show up in court. The bail bondsman’s business is based on getting people out of jail so they can take care of their lives and then show up in court when required. When they don’t show up in court, there are serious consequences.