VIDEO: Two Reasons You May Not Want to Bail Out Your Loved One From Jail

Hi, this is criminal defense attorney Michael Ocampo. And today we’re going to look at two reasons why you may not want to bail out your loved one.

1. YOU MAY BE THROWING YOUR MONEY AWAY

Bail is an amount of money that you pay. If you pay this amount of money, then your loved one will be released from jail. But bail is expensive. For instance, here in Orange County, California, it costs ten thousand dollars to bail someone out if they were arrested for misdemeanor domestic violence. And it goes up from there. But the thing is, even if you don’t pay your loved one’s bail, there’s a chance that he’ll be released from jail anyway.

Being formally charged with a crime is a two-step process. First, the police arrest someone. Then, the prosecutor, after reviewing the case, agrees to file charges. But if the prosecutor doesn’t feel that the case is strong enough to secure a conviction, the prosecutor will reject the case, and the person will be released from jail. (This doesn’t mean that the case is closed, just that, for the time being, your loved one doesn’t have to wait behind bars to find out.)

So, let’s play this out. Say that your loved one is arrested and you put up the money to bail him out that very night. He shows up to his first court date and learns that the prosecutor rejected his case. Do you get your bail money back?

If you paid the full amount, up front, then, yes, you will get your money back. If you paid ten thousand dollars to bail out a loved one who was arrested for misdemeanor domestic violence, the ten thousand dollars will be returned to you.

But what if you used a bail bond? A bail bond can get someone out of jail for just a percentage of the full bail amount, typically 10 percent. Say that you paid one thousand dollars for a bail bond, got your loved one out, and then the prosecutor decides not to file charges. Do you get your money back? The answer is no. That’s because bail bonds are non-refundable.

A related scenario is if someone is arrested for a felony, but then is charged with only a misdemeanor. This can happen when the prosecutor agrees that a crime occurred, but that it did not rise to the level of a felony.

For instance, say that your loved is arrested for felony domestic violence. The bail for felony domestic violence is fifty thousand dollars, so a bail bond to bail him out would cost five thousand dollars. If you pay the five thousand and then the prosecutor decides to file the case as a misdemeanor, you’ll have lost four thousand dollars.

That’s because the cost of a bail bond for felony domestic violence is five thousand dollars while the cost of a bail bond for misdemeanor domestic violence – which you could only have purchased after learning of the prosecutor’s decision – is one thousand dollars.

If you don’t want to risk losing a thousand dollars or more, you could just wait a few days to see if the prosecutor files the case or chooses to reject it. Of course, that means that you’ll have to let your loved one sit in jail for a few days. And that brings me to my second reason to not bail out your loved one:

2. SOME PEOPLE NEED TO LEARN THINGS THE HARD WAY

Even if you can afford to pay a thousand dollars or more to bail your loved one out, should you? For a lot of people, getting arrested is a one-time mistake. But if your loved one gets arrested, you have to ask yourself, IS this a one-time mistake? If it is, then getting him out of jail may be the right call. But if this is yet another example of a pattern of behavior? Maybe not.

Think about it: Every day, how many activities do you engage in that run the risk of you getting arrested? If your answer is “zero,” then it’s probably because you try to think through the consequences of your actions. Foresight is a useful skill, but it takes some people longer to develop it than others.

Leaving a loved one in jail when you can afford to bail him out may sound cruel, but it’s also temporary. Depending on when he was arrested, your loved one can stay in jail between two to four days — that’s how long prosecutors have to decide whether to file charges or let him go.

Jail is a swirl of new emotions and experiences: Loss of personal autonomy. Frustration over missing personal and professional obligations. Embarrassment over being grouped with other alleged misfits. A pervasive feeling of powerlessness. All of this is felt while being housed in communal and cramped living quarters. And even though this environment can be temporary, the impact of such distress can be long-lasting.

If your loved one has yet to learn that actions have consequences, well, there are few better teachers of this lesson than a night or two in jail.

But bailing him out deprives him of this valuable life lesson and ensures that the mindset and beliefs that led him to jail in the first place will persist.

So, should you bail him out? That’s a deeply personal decision that involves your finances and deciding whether your loved can – or even should – endure a night or two in jail.

If your loved one has been arrested and you’d like to discuss your options, you can call the phone number at the bottom of your screen and schedule a free, no-obligation consultation with me.

Again, this has been criminal defense attorney Michael Ocampo, and I hope that you found this information helpful.