Recently, Baltimore City Central Booking and intake center changed its procedures as far as processing an inmate for release. The changes revolve around the records department literally closing its doors from 12:30am until 7:30am. Prior to this change, the records department used to be open 24 hours a day except on Sundays when they would shut down at midnight.
This change directly affects the Baltimore City bail bondsmen, as well as the families that are trying to get their loved ones released from custody. Basically, when the records department shuts down inside the jail there is nobody physically in the building to accept a release. This is a problem because with nobody to process the release, it delays the defendant from walking out the door.
The funny thing about all this is that bail bondsmen can still post their bails 24/7 inside Baltimore city central booking. The reason that we can post a bail anytime is because a district court commissioner remains inside the jail even though the records department is shut down. What this means, is that when a bail bondsman has a bail to post in the middle of the night we can physically post the bail; but we have to come back after 7:30am to hand the release to somebody from the records department.
This is an unfortunate change because it significantly delays the inmate from getting released. What makes this change even more discouraging is that sometimes when we go to drop a release off when records opens, they will tell us they don't have the defendants paperwork ready to accept the release. If the records department doesn't have paperwork for the defendant then they cannot process the release!
Big Boyz Bail Bonds tries to handle this change as best as physically possible. If someone wants to do a Baltimore city bail at 3am that's not a problem, we will post it immediately. Then when we return to the jail at 7:30am to hand the release in and they say the paperwork is not ready we will check back every half hour to see if the release is ready to be handed in. Once the jail has both the release and the defendant's paperwork, they take on average between 4 and 6 hours to release the defendant from custody.
