As one of the most populous cities in California, city of Hayward is ranked as the sixth largest city in San Francisco Bay Area. Crimes happens everyday and everywhere, Hayward is no exception. When a person is arrested in Hayward, he will be taken to Hayward Police Station Jail for booking.
Booking Process
When a person is arrested and taken to a police station or any other detention center, the arrestee is then ‘booked’ in that facility. The booking process can take one to ten hours depends on the workload of the police station. The booking process usually involves the police official asking the arrested various personal question and check background to see if the arrestee has any previous history of arrest. If the person has no record of being arrested, the person will be given the opportunity to be released on his recognizance. Personal belongings and money are taken from the inmate and catalogued in the police station storage. The arrestee is also finger printed and has his mug shot taken. After booking process, the arrestee waits in the station for his first court date.
Bail v.s. Bond
In order to prevent the arrestee from fleeing, the court ask the suspect to pay a bail depends on the severity of the case before he is released to the public. More serious the charge is, higher bail amount is posted. If it is a minor offense, the person can pay the bail amount using cash, personal check or money order. The bail is returned after the individual comes to courtroom on judge assigned date. If the arrested fails to appear on court, his money will not be returned. Furthermore, if the person has put up his properties as bail collateral, for example, a house, but fails to appear on court, the court system has the right to put the house under foreclosure.
A surety bond, also known as bail bond, is one of the convenient ways for the defendant to get out of jail. The defendant makes a contract with a bail bond company, sometimes the bail bond company may require collateral. In the case of a person who cannot pay up the whole bail, he only needs to pay a small percentage of the whole amount, while the bail bond company put up the rest of the money to court.
In most cases, when a person contacts a bail bond company, the company gathers all information about the arrestee. When an agreement is reached, the individual only needs to pay a small percentage of the bail to the bail bond company. A family member or a close friend of the defendant can also cosign the contract. If the person decides to avoid charges, the court will take the bail company’s money, thus bail bond always have bounty hunters on call to capture the fugitives. In return, the bounty hunters receive ten to twenty percentage of the total bail.