Post Bail With a Credit Card
Avoid jail time and pay your bail with a credit card…
Get out of jail with a credit card… post bail and earn reward points! An increasing number of jails across the United States are allowing detainees to post their bail with plastic. After swiping a credit card through a reader, the bail is paid along with an additional assessment fee. When the defendent arrives in court, the money is transfered back into the account, less the assessment fee. Seeing it as a way to avoid jail overcrowding by minor offenders, jail officials see it as a positive move; bail bondsmen, however, hate it.
In St. Lucie County, Florida, the county jail assesses a non-refundable fee of 3.2% with a minimum of $2.50 per transaction when a Visa, MasterCard or Discover credit or debit card is used to make bail. MyFloridaCounty.com, the payment system used by most of the state’s court clerks, then collects the fee for equipment and processing costs.
Credit card transactions at other jails often are handled remotely by companies that process bail transactions such as Government Payment EXP who handles bond-outs in more than 30 states. Working with more than 1,100 state, county and municipal agencies, Government Payment EXP determines available credit for each transaction and informs the cardholder when the charge has been denied. If a charge is approved, electronic notification is sent to the jurisdiction. “Once the payment is sent, we are out of the picture,” says Jeff Katz, the company’s chief marketing and strategy officer.
Not caring how people pay their bond, jailers see only positive results from the new payment option. “All we do is wait for the fax to come back saying the payment has gone through. Then we can bond. We don’t have anything to do with talking to the credit card company,” says Connie Taylor, a jail officer at the Noble County Sheriff’s Office in Albion, Ind. “It saves the county money, it saves the inmate time, plus it reduces our liability of having someone else in jail,” says Lt. Dan O’Brien, booking supervisor at the St. Lucie County Jail in Fort Pierce, Fla.
In the long run, the benefits of quick release via a credit card payment save in housing, uniforms, food and other inmate services which eventually get passed on to taxpayers. Less jail time and fewer inmates also lowers the rate of injury and health problems to officers on duty who have to deal with overcrowded jails.
