Michigan Criminal Attorneys Blog
For petty or minor offenses the police officer may release the individual on their own personal recognizance with instructions to contact the Court for an arraignment date or that they will be contacted at a later date with a Court date. Sometimes an interim bond is allowed to be posted with the arresting police agency prior to arraignment.
For more serious offenses, or sometimes due to local policies, the person arrested is not given a bond until he or she is arraigned in front of a magistrate or Judge. If the person is taken into custody at the police station or county jail, he or she is booked and fingerprinted. The person accused usually has an opportunity to make a telephone call from the police station or county jail to a family member if he or she is detained. When a family member calls from jail it is important not to discuss the details of the case in as much as the phone call is usually recorded or monitored. Your first step is to hire an experienced criminal defense lawyer.