Maryland Bail Bonds Blog

Just the other day, WJZ Channel 13 news station took a visit to the ever dreadful Baltimore City Central Booking facility. It was interesting to hear one officer inside the jail describe the booking process as a "fast pace, high energy type of operation." I believe our clients bailed out of Baltimore City Central Booking would say the contrary!

Click Here to read the WJZ story on Balimore City Central Booking.

Click Here to view the WJZ video on Baltimore City Central Booking.

In fact, there is nothing fast pace or high energy that gets done inside that jail. Our Baltimore City Bail Bonds office sends licensed bail agents to the facility on a regular basis and we experience firsthand the rigors that are involved with completing bails for our clients. Baltimore City Central Booking is the only jail in Maryland that one cannot post bond for a defendant immediately after seeing the district court commissioner. Anywhere else in Maryland, once the defendant has been seen by the commissioner and been given a bail their case becomes active and bond can be posted. In Baltimore City there is an average of around 12 to 16 hours after one sees the commissioner before their bail bond can be paid.

To Central Bookings credit, their task is not necessarily a simple one. Due to the high volume of inmates being processed on a daily basis and employees manually processing their paperwork into their "Jail System" adds to the overall time delay.

One of the central issues however with Baltimore City's jail system is that there is no real management person as a regular and forceful presence on a given shift. This generally leads to employees taking extended periods of down time due to nobody watching over them. As the saying goes, "when the cats away, the mice shall play."

One of the most frustrating elements of Central Booking is trying to get a hold of someone that can give you accurate bail information. Before Big Boyz Bail Bonds makes any attempts at posting bail for someone we verify if the incarcerated inmate has any additional warrants or detainers in place. Unfortunately you could try for hours to get through to someone without getting any kind of a response. To make matters worse, when you finally do get in contact with someone you can be thrown on hold or transferred to another employee in the facility.

WJZ did a nice job giving viewers a glimpse of inside the jail. But what many don't realize is that some of the real horrors of Baltimore City Central Booking take place when one makes attempt at posting the bail bond itself. Please call Baltimore City Bail Bondsmen at Big Boyz Bail Bonds if you would like to inquire more about the Baltimore City booking and release process.

Recently we had a defendant come into Big Boyz Bail Bonds wanting to turn himself in on a warrant for his arrest. This particular defendant failed to appear (FTA) for his court date, which carried a potential jail sentence, and was issued a pre-set bail by a district court judge. A $5,000 bail was set on the FTA. This is a relatively standard pre-set bail for a defendant with little to no record missing court on a misdemeanor charge.

Many people have a false perception about pre-set bails and think that we can post the bail without having the defendant turn himself into the authorities. The fact of the matter is that the courts must physically commit the defendant before he can be released from commitment. The moment the defendant appears in front of the commissioner he becomes committed in the system.

While in the office, the defendant questioned us about our ability to have him in and out within only a couple hours. One of the many services that Big Boyz Bail Bonds offers is a speedy turn in service of a defendant with a warrant for their arrest. Fugitive recovery agent Joey Orlando specializes in taking a defendant into custody and processing them in a local Baltimore County precinct.

Once the defendant gets processed at the precinct they are then transported to the commissioner's office to be committed in the system. Once this occurs the case becomes active and Agent Orlando can post the bail. After the bail gets posted the defendant is released, never having to see a jail cell at any point in the arresting process.
If you have a warrant for your arrest and want to get it taken care of, please contact our 24 hour bail bonds office at 410-534-6070 to inquire more about this turn in service for arrest warrants.

One of the main things my father always said to me and some of my friends growing up was: "If you're going to get arrested, dont get arrested in Baltimore City." There are countless horror stories of inmates being detained in the infamous Baltimore City Central Booking and Intake center that one could blog about. This entry will focus specifically on the booking process itself as one could literally be detained for a 24-48 hour period from the time the arrest occurs to the time they are bailed out and released from the facility.

Whenever we begin the process for a Baltimore City bail with our clients we try to stress the incredibly slow process that is involved. Typically a good bail bonds service wants to provide a very quick release for its customers to try and separate their good service from the rest of the competition. Unfortunately Baltimore City slows that process down for everybody.

Just last night at around 11pm we had a customer come in wanting to post a $50,000 bail for her nephew locked up in Baltimore City Central Booking. She filled out our application, put her deposit down, and was shortly after approved by our insurance company to go ahead and write the bail. Well our company would have loved to send one of our licensed bail agents to the jail to post it but we were halted by "the process"

Anywhere else in the state of Maryland, once an inmate has seen the commissioner for there initial bail hearing there case becomes active and there bail can be posted. In Baltimore City the inmate's information has to be entered in the jail's system before it can be posted by a bail bondsman.

So our $50,000 bail was locked up around 2am yesterday morning and didn't see the commissioner and receive an ID# until about 15 hours later. So, the bail has been paid with our bail bonds company and we are calling the jail every 30 minutes to see if the inmate has been "put into the system." Still nothing, and now our $50,000 bail is slated to go to a bail review hearing in front of a district court judge where the bail can be raised, lowered, or remain the same.

Well the inmate ended up going to bail review and the judge increased the bail to $150,000. The family could not afford to post a bail this high so they were refunded there deposit, and unable to get there loved one released from jail. The family was initially upset with the company and claimed we sat on the bail, but again we further explained to them the nightmare that is Baltimore City and they understood.

It is really ridiculous that one can get arrested, see a commissioner to receive a bail and then the following day go in front of a judge for bail review never having any opportunity to post a bail. There are a lot of factors that play into the slow process of this particular jail, the primary reason however is due to the really high volume of arrests that get made in Baltimore City which is far more than any other area in the state of Maryland.