How much is bail for drug possession

Two things drive the number more than anything else: how serious the charge is, and whether police claim the drugs were meant for sale. A misdemeanor is the lighter level of charge. A felony is the heavier one.

With cite and release, the person gets a ticket with a court date on it and walks out without paying anything. That is how Los Angeles County treats misdemeanor possession of specified controlled substances in its misdemeanor bail schedule.

Orange County makes clear how big a role the charge level plays. On the same schedule, misdemeanor possession sits at $2,500 and felony possession at $20,000. In San Diego County, having a narcotic costs $2,000 in bail while having paraphernalia costs $350, per the county bail schedule.

The Tulsa County entry is the nearest drug-related line on that court's schedule, and it covers trying to deliver drugs rather than simple possession. It is drawn from the Tulsa County District Court rules. In Leon County, Florida, every drug charge filed as a third degree felony is listed at $2,500 on the county's bond schedule.

These schedules price drugs held for personal use and drugs held for sale as separate crimes. Take Fresno County: possessing narcotics for sale in an amount under 1 oz. carries $10,000 bail there, but misdemeanor possession of a prescription drug belonging to someone else is $0 on the Fresno bail schedules.

You can see the same spread in San Francisco. Possessing 1 oz. or less of plain marijuana runs $100, concentrated cannabis runs $5,000, and possessing drugs for sale runs $25,000, all according to the San Francisco bail schedule. Riverside County puts possession for sale at $20,000 in its felony and misdemeanor bail schedule.

When the full bail is out of reach, a licensed bail agent is an option. Working on behalf of an insurance company, the agent posts a bond that guarantees the full amount to the court. You pay the agent a fee for that. California's most common fee is 10% of the bail amount, with actual, necessary, and reasonable expenses on top. Agents must charge the rates their company filed with the California Department of Insurance.

For a $2,500 Orange County misdemeanor bail, that fee comes to $250. A felony bail of $20,000 in Orange or Riverside County means a $2,000 fee.

In California, you usually don't get that fee back. The one exception is if the agent surrenders the person back to jail. Then the fee is refunded, minus administrative costs. Since January 1, 2022, agents in California can't charge you a renewal fee to keep the bond going, and they are allowed to give you a discount.

In Florida, the minimum fee is 10% for state bonds and 15% for federal bonds; it gets charged one time per case rather than yearly. Moving the case to a higher court adds no extra fee unless bail goes up, according to the state's rate filing rules.

Yes. California judges can release someone on their own recognizance, set a bail amount, order them held, or attach conditions to release. Own recognizance means going home on a signed promise to come back, with no money changing hands.

Judges are allowed to set bail higher or lower than the scheduled figure, as the Santa Clara County bail schedule page lays out. Prosecutors may request a higher amount too, and Imperial County posts its procedure for requesting increased bail. Ohio spells out how its judges set or change bail in Ohio Revised Code 2937.011.

Some states skip bail agents or dollar amounts entirely, so find out which state the jail is in before counting on a price.

• Illinois did away with money bail on January 1, 2023. Under Public Act 101-652, people go home with or without supervision, or stay in custody only if a hearing says so.
• Kentucky banned commercial bail agents back in 1976. Judges there can pick from release on recognizance, a bond with no money up front, a surety provided by someone else, cash, or property; Pretrial Services talks with the arrested person inside 24 hours.
• Courts in Wisconsin may grant release on personal recognizance, require cash bail or a 10% cash deposit, or set conditions under Wis. Stat. 969.12. State pages never mention licensed bail agents.
• Oklahoma's Insurance Department licenses bail bondsmen, and the state permits cash, property, surety bond, or personal recognizance, per Title 59, Chapter 33. Its published statutes set no fixed fee percentage.