Answer:
There’s nothing more daunting than watching a family member or a loved one be put in handcuffs, hauled off to jail, you getting that phone call from that blocked number, that strange number, and your loved one on the other side of the phone. The question always is: How do I bail my son or daughter out of jail? Bail is a process. There are some constitutional concerns as it relates to bail. There are some statutory concerns particularly here in Arizona as it relates to bail.
Most offenses are bailable as a matter of right in the state of Arizona. There are some charges that you can be faced with or charged with that are not bailable. At an arraignment or at some other hearing, the judge will normally set release conditions and bail. It could be a cash bond. It could be a bail amount or whatnot. After you get that amount, you can either post that amount in cash, you can contact a bails bondsman and work with them. Sometimes they require collateral or different things to where you can get that person out of jail while their charges are still pending against them.
One of the things that’s important to know about bail, though, is that that person has to show up to court. They have to make sure that they’re at all of their hearings because you don’t want to have a failure to appear because, of course, that doesn’t look good on your record, and the judge is not likely to let you out again if you have a certain number of failure to appears. Again, according to the federal law that bails and bonds and all of that stuff must be set based on two principles: are they a danger to the public and can it be ensured that the person’s going to return back to court for the hearings that will be after the bail hearing.
You make sure you contact an attorney. A lot of attorneys will work with you with the bails bondsman. We have a list of bails bondsman that work with clients, but it’s something that can be done if a bail has been set in the matter. If there’s been no bail set, there are some opportunities based under the controlling law to where a defense attorney can request a modification to a bond or bail amount or release conditions. We can go from whatever the bail amount is to release him to their own recognizance, and this is a decision that the judge will make. The judge will normally hear arguments about it and then go from there.
Speak with your attorney, or if you’re that person and you have that bail set and you think it’s too high and needs to be lowered, talk to competent counsel. There are things that can be done to help get you out of jail, to get you to a right bails bondsman while you’re facing these charges. A whole lot easier to defend charges when you’re out and able to work with your attorney and other witnesses than it is – than it will be if you’re sitting in jail, so talk to your lawyer. Call somebody and get to work on getting that bail adjusted.
