San Bernardino Bail Bond Amounts

How can I find out what the bail amounts are for the county of San Bernardino?

In order to learn about the bail amounts for a particular county in California, you simply need to contact the county court. However, the county court will only be able to offer you assumptive bail amounts, which are approximate bail amounts for a particular crime. Each bail will be individually set by a judge that reviews each case separate from the others. As such, it often happens that the assumptive bail amount is only a starting place. Two people can have bail for what seems like the same case or situation, but their bail amounts can be very different.

In order to fully understand how bail amounts are set, it is important to understand what the judge is thinking about when he reviews a particular case. Here is a brief overview of some of the factors that the judge will take into consideration when setting bail, in addition to the assumptive bail amount:

Criminal History
A judge will always request information about a person’s criminal history before setting bail. The judge will want to understand if the defendant has committed the same crime before or if the defendant has a history of committing violent crimes. If the defendant does have a criminal history, then the bail will likely be set at a higher amount than if the defendant was a first-time offender.

Flight Risk
When setting bail, one of the most important things to consider is whether or not an individual will show up in court in order to stand trial for the crime that he or she has been accused of committing. In the event that the individual is deemed to be a high flight risk, the judge will set the bail at a higher amount. This is because when the person does not show up to court, the court will get the full amount of the bail money. As such, the higher bail amount is incentive for the defendant to actually show up to court (rather than lose a large amount of money.)

Crime
The judge will look at the nature of the crime. There are some cases in which the judge will determine that the defendant can be released from jail on his or her own recognizance, especially if the person is a first-time offender or if the crime is considered to be relatively innocuous (such as shoplifting a small item.) There are also situations at the other end of the spectrum in which a judge will deny bail because of the nature of the crime. This happens if the crime is a violent crime, including murder.