5.1 Admission to Bail, Taking of Bail, and Discharge

Admission to Bail, Taking of Bail, and Discharge

Quick Answer: Penal Code 1268 is the order that the defendant be discharged from actual custody upon bail. Penal Code 1269 is the acceptance of a sufficient undertaking. The jailer or clerk named in 1269b takes the paper or cash and, upon posting, discharges the person as to that offense. The court sets the face amount. The premium is a separate filed surety charge, and 1276.1 has banned renewal premiums since January 1, 2022.

Five of the 22 Bail–General items on the CDI Bail Agent exam sit in this Penal Code cluster. The first job is to keep three verbs apart. Admission is an order. Taking is acceptance of the undertaking. Discharge is the release from custody that follows a valid posting. An agent who treats those as one hallway phrase will miss the item that asks which statute does which act.

1268 and 1269: the order versus the paper

Penal Code 1268 is one sentence, enacted in 1872 and still the definition: admission to bail is the order of a competent court or magistrate that the defendant be discharged from actual custody upon bail. The order does not, by itself, open the cell door. Someone still has to take sufficient bail.

Penal Code 1269 is that next act. The taking of bail consists in the acceptance, by a competent court or magistrate, of the undertaking of sufficient bail for the appearance of the defendant, according to the terms of the undertaking, or that the bail will pay the people of this state a specified sum. On filing, the clerk enters the date, the amount, and the name of the surety in the register of actions. If the paper is later lost, those entries are prima facie evidence that the bond was duly executed. After more than three years from exoneration or release of the bail, the court must order the bond destroyed.

Exam trap: The agent does not "admit" the defendant to bail. The court or magistrate does. The agent effects an undertaking of an admitted surety insurer. The people who take that undertaking at the window are the officers and clerks 1269b names, not a runner with a briefcase.

Penal Code 1269a is the warrant-case overlay. Except as otherwise provided, a defendant charged in a warrant of arrest shall not be discharged upon bail except on a written order of a competent court or magistrate admitting the defendant in the amount endorsed under Penal Code 815a, and, where an undertaking is furnished, a written order approving it. Those orders must be signed and delivered to the officer who has custody before release. An officer who releases a defendant otherwise than as 1269a provides is guilty of a misdemeanor.

Who may take bail: 1269b

Penal Code 1269b(a) is the jail-window statute. These people may approve and accept bail in the amount fixed by the warrant, the schedule, or an order admitting to bail, in cash or a surety bond executed by a certified, admitted surety insurer as provided in the Insurance Code; may issue and sign a release order; and may set the time and place for appearance:

• the officer in charge of the jail where the arrested person is held;
• a sheriff's or city police officer in charge of a jail, or employed at a fixed police or sheriff's facility under an agreement with the agency that keeps that jail;
• a sheriff's or city police employee assigned by the department to collect bail;
• the clerk of the superior court of the county where the offense was alleged; and
• the clerk of the superior court where the case is pending.

Penal Code 1269b(b) then ranks the amount. If the defendant has already appeared before a judge on the charge, bail is the amount that judge fixed. If not, it is the amount in the warrant, or, if there is no warrant, the uniform countywide schedule of the county where the defendant must appear.

Judges of the superior court in each county must prepare, adopt, and annually revise that uniform countywide schedule for all bailable felonies and for misdemeanors and infractions except Vehicle Code infractions (the Judicial Council sets the Vehicle Code infraction penalty schedule). If the court has no local rule, a majority of the judges adopt it. In setting felony amounts they must consider seriousness, including extra bail for listed enhancements (Penal Code 667.5, 12022 series, and specified Health and Safety Code quantity enhancements). A copy goes to the county jail, each city jail, each superior court judge and commissioner, and the Judicial Council. AB 82 (Stats. 2025, Ch. 679, effective January 1, 2026) added 1269b(f)(2): the schedule shall set $0 bail for a person arrested in connection with an out-of-state proceeding about a legally protected health-care activity that is lawful in California.

Penal Code 1269b(g) is the discharge sentence the blueprint is testing: upon posting bail, the defendant or arrested person shall be discharged from custody as to the offense on which the bail is posted. Money and surety bonds deposited with an authorized officer shall be transmitted immediately to the judge or clerk. If the person later fails to appear as ordered, 1305 and 1306 apply (1269b(h)).

California scenario. A defendant is booked at Men's Central Jail in Los Angeles on a warrantless felony with $50,000 on the county schedule. The agent does not invent that number. A jail employee assigned to collect bail under 1269b(a) may accept an admitted-surety undertaking in that amount, sign a release, and set the first appearance. If a peace officer files a 1269c declaration that schedule bail is not enough to assure appearance or to protect a domestic-violence victim, a magistrate may raise it. If no changing order issues within eight hours after booking, the defendant is entitled to be released on the schedule amount. Do not confuse that eight-hour 1269c clock with the 24-hour 1275.1 source-of-funds clock below.

Penal Code 1269c also lets the defendant, personally or through an attorney, friend, or family member, apply for lower-than-schedule bail or own-recognizance release — except on offenses listed in 1270.1(a). The magistrate or commissioner may set the amount and conditions deemed sufficient to assure appearance or to protect a domestic-violence victim or family member, or may authorize OR.

Setting, reducing, or denying bail: 1270 through 1275.1

Penal Code 1270 allows own-recognizance release by a court or magistrate who could have released the person on bail, including an out-of-county warrant. A misdemeanor defendant in custody at arraignment, and a misdemeanor-only out-of-county warrant appearance, shall receive OR unless the court finds on the record, using 1275 factors, that OR will compromise public safety or will not reasonably assure appearance. Public safety is the primary consideration. Penal Code 1270.5 is the capital-case bar: a defendant charged with an offense punishable with death cannot be admitted to bail when the proof of guilt is evident or the presumption great. Penal Code 1271 is the complementary as-of-right rule: if the charge is for any other offense, the person may be admitted to bail before conviction as a matter of right. After conviction the rule changes; 1272 is a discretionary/right mix that is not the 1271 pre-conviction promise. Penal Code 1270.2 gives a person detained before conviction for want of bail an automatic review of the order fixing bail, held not later than five days from the original order on the original accusatory pleading; the defendant may waive that review.

Penal Code 1275(a) lists what a judge or magistrate shall consider in setting, reducing, or denying bail: protection of the public, seriousness of the offense charged, previous criminal record, and the probability of appearing. Public safety shall be the primary consideration. Seriousness includes alleged injury to the victim, alleged threats to the victim or a witness, alleged use of a firearm or other deadly weapon, and alleged use or possession of controlled substances. For Health and Safety Code Chapter 6 drug charges, the judge shall also consider alleged amounts and whether the defendant is already on bail for a Chapter 6 offense. Before reducing schedule bail below the county amount for a serious felony (1192.7(c)) or a violent felony (667.5(c)), the court must find unusual circumstances and put those facts on the record. "Made all prior appearances" or "committed no new offense" is not an unusual circumstance.

Penal Code 1275.1 is the dirty-money hold. Bail shall not be accepted unless a judge or magistrate finds that no portion of the consideration, pledge, security, deposit, or indemnification was feloniously obtained. A hold is ordered only if a peace officer or prosecutor files a declaration under penalty of perjury setting forth probable cause, or the magistrate or judge independently has that probable cause. Once probable cause is found, the defendant bears the burden, by a preponderance, to show that no part of the funds was obtained by felonious means. A loan is allowed if it will be funded and repaid with clean money. If the filed declaration is not acted on within 24 hours, the defendant shall be released upon posting the amount of bail set. Willfully misleading the court about the source of bail can increase bail. "Feloniously obtained" means possessed, received, or obtained through an unlawful act that constitutes a felony.

Premium is not the face amount: 1276.1, 1459, 1280, and 1166

The court or county schedule sets the penal sum. The family does not pay that sum to the agent. They pay the surety's filed premium, plus only the charges Title 10 allows. Penal Code 1276.1(a) is the 2022 consumer rule CDI prints on the bail-bonds page: on and after January 1, 2022, no insurer, bail agent, or other bail licensee shall enter into a bail contract that requires more than one premium for the duration of the agreement, and that duration is until bail is exonerated. No insurer, bail agent, or other bail licensee shall charge, collect, or receive a renewal premium. Immigration-bond renewal premiums are separately banned on and after July 1, 2022. A violation makes the licensee liable for actual damages plus $3,000 statutory damages, plus costs and reasonable attorney fees.

Penal Code 1459 is the statutory form of the insurer's obligation. The admitted surety undertakes that the named defendant will appear on the date set, answer any charge in any accusatory pleading based on the acts supporting the complaint and all duly authorized amendments, hold himself or herself amenable to the orders and process of the court, and, if convicted, appear for pronouncement of judgment or grant of probation — or the insurer will pay the people the stated sum. If forfeiture is ordered, judgment may be summarily entered as provided by 1305 and 1306. That is the court-facing promise. It is not a promise to refund premium if the case is dismissed.

Penal Code 1280 still requires personal sureties to justify by affidavit that they possess the qualifications of the preceding section; the magistrate may examine them under oath. Penal Code 1280.1 turns a recorded justification affidavit into an attachment lien in the amount of the undertaking until exoneration, and, after forfeiture and summary judgment, into a judgment lien. Commercial admitted-surety paper uses 1459, not a family member's recorded affidavit, but the exam still tests that personal-surety path.

Penal Code 1166 is the blueprint's "refund of bail." After a general or special verdict against the defendant, the person is remanded if in custody, or committed if on bail, unless the court, considering public protection, seriousness, record, probability of failing to appear for judgment, and public safety, lets the person remain out on bail. A person found guilty of an offense punishable by life without parole or death shall be remanded. When the defendant is committed or remanded under 1166, bail is exonerated, or if money was deposited instead of bail it shall be refunded to the defendant or the person who deposited it. That is a refund of the deposit or a release of the undertaking, not a refund of the agent's earned premium. CDI's consumer page still states that premiums are generally nonrefundable even if charges are dropped; the Penal Code overlay for a pre-forfeiture surrender is 1300(b) plus 10 CCR 2090, taught in the next section.

How the defendant reached the window: arrest, phones, and forbidden jailhouse gifts

The agent does not make the original arrest. Penal Code 834 defines arrest as taking a person into custody in a case and in the manner authorized by law, by a peace officer or a private person. Penal Code 825 requires the defendant to be taken before a magistrate without unnecessary delay and, in any event, within 48 hours after arrest, excluding Sundays and holidays, with a next-session extension when that 48 hours expires while court is not in session. Penal Code 851.5 is why the family can call you: immediately upon booking, and except where physically impossible no later than three hours after arrest, the arrested person has the right to at least three completed telephone calls, including a call to a bail bondsman, an attorney, and a relative or other person. Local-area calls are free. A posted sign must say so in English and in any non-English language spoken by a substantial number of the public the facility serves. Willfully depriving the person of that right is a misdemeanor.

Penal Code 160 is the jailhouse-payment ban the educational objectives list as a gift prohibition: no bail licensee may employ, engage, solicit, pay, or promise any payment, compensation, consideration, or thing of value to any person incarcerated in a prison, jail, or other place of detention for the purpose of that person soliciting bail on the licensee's behalf. A violation is a misdemeanor, and prosecution under Insurance Code 1800 or 1814 remains available. Do not pay a tankmate to steer business. Penal Code 134 is the false-document felony: preparing a false or antedated paper with intent to produce it as genuine upon any trial, proceeding, or inquiry authorized by law is a felony. A fake 1459 undertaking, a backdated receipt, or a forged indemnitor signature is not a "paperwork error."

Traps. Admission (1268) is not taking (1269). The agent does not set the face amount; the court or the 1269b schedule does. Premium is not 10 percent by statute and is not a down payment on the penal sum. 1269c's eight-hour deviation clock is not 1275.1's 24-hour hold clock. 1166 refunds the deposit or exonerates the bond after a guilty-verdict remand; it does not refund premium. 1276.1 banned renewal premiums beginning January 1, 2022. 160 bans paying inmates to solicit; it is not the same rule as the public-officer gift restrictions in Title 10.