What's the Difference Between Bail and Bond?

Iryna Zarutska was a young Ukrainian refugee living in Charlotte, N.C., in August 2025 when she stepped onto a local commuter train—and into a fiery debate over bail procedures for people accused of crimes.

Minutes after boarding the train, the 23-year-old woman was fatally stabbed. The man accused of killing Zarutska, Decarlos Brown Jr., had 14 prior criminal arrests and had served five years in prison for robbery with a dangerous weapon. Earlier in 2025, Brown had been arrested after repeatedly calling 911 from a hospital—but a judge released him without requiring Brown to post bail.

Three days after Zarutska was murdered, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that would withhold federal funding from states that have adopted “cashless bail” policies that allow people accused of crimes to avoid jail, sparking a nationwide debate over bail, bonds and cashless bail.

In most criminal cases, when a person is arrested, they appear before a judge and enter a plea. If the person pleads not guilty, the judge decides if the defendant should be remanded into police custody or released until their trial, depending on the severity of the crime, prior criminal record, the likelihood that they’re a “flight risk” and other factors.

If a person is released before their trial, they may be released under their own recognizance after promising to appear in court. In other cases, the judge may require that a person post bail, an amount of cash that’s held as a security deposit to ensure the person will appear for their trial.

Some jurisdictions use a fixed bail schedule to determine a bail amount, or a judge may decide cases individually. If a person fails to return for their trial, breaks the law or violates any conditions of their release, they will usually forfeit some or all of their bail.

If an accused person makes all required court appearances, their bail money is typically refunded, minus a small administrative fee.

A bond is a bail amount paid by a company that specializes in fronting people money to pay their bail. The bail bond company works with the court system to pay the bail money—sometimes called a surety bond—if the accused person fails to show up for their court date.

Bail bond companies charge for their services, making it a more expensive option than a personal bond, which presents a problem for low-income people. A nonrefundable fee of 10% on a bail amount of $25,000 would be $2,500—prohibitively expensive for many people.

If a person with a bail bond fails to make all necessary court appearances, bounty hunters working for the bail bond companies—as well as police—have the right to track down the wayward defendant.

Cashless bail is a system that allows people to avoid pre-trial jail time without having to pay any kind of monetary amount. A judge or administrative court appointees will assess a defendant’s risk of committing crimes or fleeing the area to determine if the defendant should be granted cashless bail.

Proponents argue that cashless bail allows people to care for family members and keep working at jobs they might otherwise lose if they’re placed in jail awaiting trial. It also makes the justice system fairer for all individuals, instead of a two-tiered system in which more affluent defendants can avoid jail time by posting bail while poorer defendants are forced to languish in overcrowded jails before their case is heard.

In 2010, 16-year-old Kalief Browder was accused of stealing a backpack; because his family was unable to pay his $3,000 bail, he was incarcerated in New York’s infamous Riker’s Island jail for three years—including long stretches in solitary confinement. The charges were eventually dropped, but a traumatized Browder died by suicide shortly after being freed.

Later the subject of an acclaimed documentary, Browder’s story is just one of many that have led to nationwide bail reforms. “Pretrial incarceration does not make us safer or healthier,” Scott Hechinger, executive director of bail reform group Zealous, told PBS. Illinois, New Jersey, California, New Mexico and other states currently allow some form of cashless bail.

But opponents claim cashless bail leaves judges with no discretion and results in a revolving door for repeat offenders. “You have ‘turnstile justice’ where recidivists have been arrested for the same crime hundreds of times … and you can’t impose bail,” retired FBI agent James Gagliano told CNN. “It’s wrong and it doesn’t fix the system.”