When someone gets arrested and taken in to be detained, in order to start the process of being released, a judge first has to decide if offering bond would be appropriate and if so, how much it should be set at. Judges will have a few factors to think about when making this decision, here are some of the factors they look at.
Previous Record
If when a person is arrested, it is their first time there will tend to be more leniency when it comes to bond price as well as possible charges. This, of course, is only really held lightly if the crime is less serious of a matter. If the crime being charges is murder, for example, it won’t matter if you had a completely clean record previously, you most likely will not be offered bond. If judge sees several offenses on a record but they tend to be more misdemeanors then most likely bond will still be offered but it could be a high bond cost or there may be more bail conditions that have to be met.
Possibility of Returning
For some, if the judge sees that a defendant has a lot of money in their account or many resources, they could be considered a flight risk. The reason for bond is to be released from jail on the agreement that the defendant will return to court for scheduled dates, but when deciding on whether or not to offer bond it can be a risk that the defendant may skip town. So like with credit reports a judge will gauge the risk compared to resources only in this circumstance the more you have the worse it may seem.
Severity of charge
As previously said, if you are charged with murder you probably will not be getting any type of release but for lesser crimes, it can really depend. If the crime the defendant is being charged with is particularly violent in nature or there is a past history of violent crimes, the judge may deem the defendant as a danger to society and think that it would be best if the defendant remains detained until their trial. For something like petty theft however, the judge may even go so lightly as to release the defendant on personal recognizance.
In the end, this is just a starting point of what could be the parameters a judge goes through when deciding whether or not to keep someone detained but it lays out the most important factors. If you don’t really have a vast criminal record and the crime committed was relatively minor then there should not too much issue with getting released.
