The decision about whether someone stays in custody while their case is pending - which is about appearance and safety, not about guilt.
Bail is the set of conditions on which a person charged with an offence is released while the case proceeds. The decision is made early, often within a day or so of arrest, and it is not a judgment about whether the person committed the offence. The questions a court is answering are narrower: will this person come back to court, and is there a risk to anyone if they are released.
Release can take several forms. Release on recognisance is a promise to appear with no money involved. An unsecured bond makes money owing only if the person fails to appear. A cash or secured bond requires money or property to be posted, which is returned at the end of the case if the conditions were kept. A surety bond is where a commercial bail bond company posts the amount for a non-refundable fee, typically a percentage of the bond - that fee is the company's and is not returned whatever the outcome, which is the point most often misunderstood. Non-financial conditions are common alongside any of these: supervision, electronic monitoring, curfews, surrender of a passport, and no-contact orders.
Bail conditions are not fixed for the life of a case. A defendant can normally apply to have them reviewed and reduced as circumstances change, and the prosecution can apply to have them tightened or revoked - most commonly after an alleged breach or a new arrest. Breaching a condition can result in return to custody, forfeiture of the money posted, and in some jurisdictions a separate charge for failing to appear.
This is one of the areas of American criminal procedure changing most quickly and most unevenly. A number of states have substantially restricted or eliminated money bail for many offences in favour of assessment-based release, others have not, and the rules can differ between counties within a single state. What applies is local, and a description of practice in one state is a poor guide to another.
The first hearing is usually the one that decides whether someone is in custody for the following months, and it happens quickly - which is why representation at that hearing matters more than its length suggests. What helps is concrete and gatherable in advance by family: proof of address, employment, caregiving responsibilities, community ties, and anyone willing to act as a surety. If a commercial bond is being considered, the fee is not refundable and the contract binds whoever signs it, so it is worth understanding before signing rather than after. Conditions that have become impossible to keep - a curfew that conflicts with a new shift, for instance - are a reason to apply for a variation, not a reason to breach.
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