Through an unfortunate turn of events, my knowledge of which is very limited, a guy I know was arrested and is sitting inside a Will County prison. Bail was set, due to some prior indiscretions, at $75,000. His bail was confirmed today and he has a trial date set for a month from now.
So if I wanted to help him out, what could I do and how much would it cost? Obviously this isn't something I do every day. Per Wikipedia, "Bond agents generally charge a fee of 10-12% of the total amount of the bail required in order to post a bond for the amount. This fee is not refundable and represents the bond agent's compensation for his or her services. As the practice of paying a 10% cash premium for a bond became widespread, some courts have recently instituted a practice of accepting 10% of the bond amount in cash"
However, in Illinois, according to Wikipedia, "Four states—Illinois, Kentucky, Oregon, and Wisconsin—have completely banned commercial bail bonding, usually substituting the 10% cash deposit alternative described above." The alternative is the posting of 10% of the bail in cash with the court. The deposit is usually returned if the case is concluded without violation of the conditions of bail. So apparently, you can then get the cash back after the trial is over, regardless of the outcome, as long as the person being charged shows up for the court appearances.
As a basic tenet in life, I avoid doing anything that would lead me to being imprisoned. Sounds simple enough right? The thought of it is pretty disturbing. By the same token, don't do the crime if you can't do the time, right? It's a nice thought as long as it's not someone that you actually know being put behind bars. This particular guy is nice enough, but has had some bad breaks.
Where's my compassion?? Maybe I'll do a little more research first though, before doing anything rash.
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3 comments:
Life when we are dealing with those we know always becomes a lot more messy/unclear than when we are dealing with abstracts
hah, I can say exactly what I said yesterday - don't envy you the decision!
I think that the only real question here is are you prepared to lose the money if you put it up? Bad things happen to good people yes, and something bad could happen that could cause you to lose your bond. If the loss of that money would mean less to you than the thought of this person being in jail- then well worth it to make the gift.
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