Keep Bailing

Hollywood’s favorite “good girl” Selena Gomez is ditching her squeaky-clean image and heading to jail – or at least her character in the upcoming film Spring Breakers is.

The Disney Star will be partying, drinking, and getting crazy with her girlfriends, she told US  Weekly.  In one scene, the coeds even wind up robbing a restaurant as a means of funding the trip.   Although the edgy part is a far-cry from her off-screen persona, Gomez said she was up for the challenge and embraced the role. Viewers should keep in mind that movie-set jails are quite different from what celebrity female arrestees like Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan experienced when they were booked into the Lynwood Jail, the Los Angeles County women’s jail.

As far as having concerns about her younger, tween-fans Read more »

I didn’t need to see the morning news to find out that the LAPD cleared out the Los Angeles Occupy site. Instead, we were answering calls from family looking to post bail bonds for the protesters.

Apparently, more than 200 Occupy Los Angeles protestors were arrested early this morning in what the Los Angeles Police Department calls a “peaceful sweep”. LAPD Police Chief Charlie Beck addressed the media shortly after the disbandment of the camp, saying that the arrests were “mainly peaceful”.

Arrestees were loaded onto buses and taken to the LAPD Metro Jail to be booked and processed.  Bail for those that called us was set at $5,000. The jailer at the downtown LA Metropolitan Center Jail told us that protestors would not be released on their own recognizance or “cited out” as protesters usually are. We are somewhat skeptical of that given the already overcrowded Los Angeles jail systems. However, each individual will certainly be screened for warrants on a nation-wide basis. So with so many individuals to book in, any release, be it on bail or otherwise will be hours away.

According to  the Los Angeles Times, several hundred police officers arrived at the camp just after midnight and surrounded the encampment and declared it to be an “unlawful assembly”. Occupiers were told Read more »

Renovations at the Burbank Jail are nearly complete.

Our Inside California Jails Series Continues…

The renovations being made at the Burbank Police Department, Jail and Fire Headquarters are fast approaching completion. This is good news for Burbank law enforcement officials, who have been forced to transport arrestees to the Glendale Jail for booking due to the construction.  The estimated $9.5 million project is scheduled to be complete in March 2012 and includes upgraded concrete flooring as well as reinstillation of jail security measures such as electronic-locks and doors.

Greg Rynerson Bail Bonds continues with our eleventh series in our California Jails: Inside the Burbank Jail.

Here, we’ll fill you in on:

• Reasons The Renovations Were Needed
• Where The Funding Came From
• The Lawsuit That Started It All

Is there a jail you’d like to learn more about ? Let us know- we’ll get you “inside” (or, if you need, we’ll get you out!).

We just created a diagram of the California Bail Bond Process to help explain the steps involved in getting bailed out of jail. The process shows each stage, from an individual getting arrested and booked, all the way to the defendent getting bailed out:

(Click on the Bail Bond Process image to view at larger size.)

Halloween is upon us and that means ghouls, goblins and other things that go bump-in-the-night are steadily increasing.

Should you find yourself arrested and being taken to jail during while trick or treating, although you will likely not be in a haunted jail; the sounds of rattling metal (keys and handcuffs) and slamming doors (the opening and closures of jail cells) can still be enough to give you goosebumps.

Regardless as to when a person is arrested, the one, year-round common denominator of wanting to get out (and fast!) remains the same.

If you’re arrested this Halloween, the good news is Read more »

Residents of Douglas County have been warned by the Sheriff’s Department of a bail bond scam occurring in the area. A scam artist has contacted a business, pretending to be an employee of the Sheriff’s Office, and asked for money to be wired for a bail bond.

It’s a popular bail scam that people attempt to use all across the country. Sheriff Ken McGovern has warned that anyone contacted by a third party requesting them to post bail for a friend or relative needs to be cautious.

In the most recent attempt at this scam, the individual allegedly contacted the Read more »

Colorado bill SB11-186, known as the Alternative Bond bill, failed to become a part of Colorado legislation when the 2011 legislative session ended. The purpose of the Alternative Bond is to give Colorado courts the ability to dabble in the bail bond business by accepting a premium that is usually charged by a bail bond agent in exchange for posting bail. The courts, unlike a bail bondsman, would not have to worry about paying the full bond amount if a defendant fails to appear in court and is not brought into custody quickly.

SB11-186 squeaked by in the Senate vote, passing by one (18-17). There wasn’t enough time to get the bill through the House before the end of the session. Alteratively and hopefully, the commercial bail bond industry Read more »

The U.S. Department of Justice released information according to a study they conducted that found the overall jail population is at a decline as “commercial bail” (or use of bail bondsmen) continues to increase.

The jail population, overall, has declined from 2007 to 2009.

According to Michael Hough, a public safety fellow through the American Legislative Exchange Council, better known as ALEC stated, “This latest study disproves the myth that the use of bail bonds increases the number of people in jail. We now know that this connection cannot be made. The increased use of commercial bail can actually help to alleviate overcrowding in jails.”

An earlier study conducted by the Department of Justice, revealed that the number of individuals who were released from jail on a commercial bail bond, since 1992, increased by 100 percent.

Currently, over 40 percent of individuals released from jail are bailed out via a bail bondsman.

In 2009, the National Association of Pretrial Services Agencies, a lobbying association for the elimination of commercial bail bonds, released a report that claimed Read more »

The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department re-captured a man who was taken in for burglary charges and consequently tried to escape the confines of an L.A. County Jail.

On Monday, Ryan Martinez of Palmdale had been arrested and taken into the Sheriff’s Station at the Santa Clarita Valley Jail for questioning due to a burglary charge. While Martinez was being held in an interview room within the jail, officials were waiting to perform further questioning until the victim could provide a clear identification of the suspect.

According to officials, they Read more »

MENLO PARK, CA - Can anyone say, anger management classes?

In a rage of unknown beginnings, Nikolai Bonds, son of Barry the ’home run king’ Bonds decided to throw a temper tantrum, along with a metal doorknob at his own mother, Sun Bonds. According to the Mercury News, the incident happened during an argument at her home in Menlo Park.

Reportedly, Nikolai spit in Read more »