Pomona police arrested someone you love, and words like booking and arraignment make little sense at 2 a.m. The steps below run from arrest to the day the court releases the bail.
What happens after a Pomona police arrest?
Most people Pomona officers arrest go to Pomona City Jail, 490 W. Mission Blvd., for booking. Booking is the jail’s intake: jailers take photographs and fingerprints and check identity and medical needs.
According to the City, people who can post bail or a bond, or who qualify for a citation, go home from the jail. Anyone still held stays there until arraignment at the Pomona courts.
To check on someone, call the jail at (909) 620-2131. The Sheriff’s online Inmate Finder covers LASD jails only, so someone still at the city jail may not show up. Our Pomona inmate search guide covers both.
Does everyone arrested in Pomona need to post bail?
No. For an arrest without a warrant, Los Angeles County’s Pre-Arraignment Release Protocol, in force since October 1, 2023, sorts charges into three $0 tracks, money bail, or no release before arraignment:
- Cite and Release: a citation and a promise to appear, with no booking.
- Book and Release: booking, then release on a promise to appear.
- Magistrate Review: booking, then a magistrate decides between own-recognizance release, release with non-financial conditions, or custody until arraignment. Until the magistrate rules, the person stays in custody and you cannot post a bond.
- Money bail: most serious and violent felonies, offenses listed in PC 1270.1, and charges with certain sentencing enhancements.
- No release before arraignment: special-circumstance murder and other charges the law makes ineligible.
A $0 charge still means Magistrate Review for someone on felony probation or parole. An arrest on a warrant is different: the magistrate who issued it fixed any bail and wrote it on the warrant (PC 815a), and that amount stands. Before paying anyone, check whether you need a bond at all.
How is the bail amount set in Los Angeles County?
The county’s bail schedule sets it. State law (PC 1269b) requires each county’s superior court judges to adopt a uniform bail schedule and revise it every year. The current Los Angeles County felony schedule took effect January 1, 2026, and lists assault with a deadly weapon under PC 245(a)(1) at $30,000. A warrant’s amount overrides the schedule, and after the first court appearance the judge’s figure controls.
The jail releases the person only on the charge the bail covers (PC 1269b(g)), so a second warrant or another agency’s hold can keep them inside.
An arrest across the line in San Bernardino County can mean booking in Rancho Cucamonga at West Valley Detention Center (9500 Etiwanda Ave.), and a San Bernardino County charge follows that county’s schedule.
How do you post bail: cash or a bail bond?
You can deposit the full amount in cash or buy a bail bond. A bond is an insurer’s promise to pay the full bail if the defendant skips court, and a licensed agent posts it for a premium.
| Cash bail | Bail bond | |
|---|---|---|
| You pay | The full bail amount | A one-time premium, 10% in most cases |
| Posted by | Anyone, with the court clerk (PC 1295) or at the jail | A CDI-licensed agent, often after a cosigner signs |
| What comes back | A relative’s deposit: all of it after judgment, with the receipt. The defendant’s own: the rest after restitution, fines and costs (PC 1297) | Premium is non-refundable, with two surrender exceptions (below) |
On $30,000 bail, cash means $30,000 held until the case ends, while a bond premium at 10% comes to $3,000. Rates and 8% eligibility sit in the bail bond cost guide; bail vs. bond compares the two. We post both cash bail and surety bonds. A cosigner, called the indemnitor, promises to repay the full bail if the defendant disappears, so read cosigner and collateral responsibilities before signing.
Once bail posts, release in our experience takes 2 to 6 hours while the jail finishes its paperwork. The after-posting guide explains the first days out.
When is the first court date after a Pomona arrest?
The first court date is the arraignment, where the defendant hears the charges and the judge reviews release terms. For someone still in custody, PC 825 sets the deadline at 48 hours from the arrest, leaving out Sundays and holidays. Anyone released finds the date on their release paperwork. Pomona’s criminal clerk’s office sits at Pomona Courthouse South, 400 Civic Center Plaza, (909) 802-1100, open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays.
At arraignment, the judge may reset bail or custody terms, and pre-arraignment decisions do not bind the court.
After arraignment, each further date the court sets needs the defendant or, where Penal Code 977 allows, a lawyer. One premium covers the bond through all of them until the court exonerates the bail; California has barred renewal premiums since January 1, 2022 (PC 1276.1).
How does bail work in California when the case ends?
At the end of the case, the court exonerates, or releases, the bail, since the defendant came to court as ordered. For a bond, that ends the insurer’s liability and the cosigner’s exposure for the bail amount.
Can you get a bail bond premium back?
In most cases you cannot. The agent earns the premium by writing the bond and keeps it if prosecutors drop the charges. California has two surrender exceptions. Under 10 CCR 2090, if the agent surrenders the defendant to custody before a court date the bond covers, it must return the premium. The agent may keep only limited out-of-pocket costs under 10 CCR 2081(c) and (d), and only after showing a much higher risk. And PC 1300(b) lets a judge order a refund of the premium when a surrender lacked good cause.
What happens if someone misses a court date?
Absent a sufficient excuse, the judge declares the bail forfeited in open court (PC 1305) and can issue a bench warrant (PC 978.5). Forfeiture means you could lose the bail unless the defendant returns in time. For bail over $400, the clerk mails a notice of forfeiture within 30 days.
The defendant then has 180 days from the forfeiture, or from the mailing of the notice when the law requires one, plus 5 days for mailing. If the defendant appears in court inside that window, the court vacates the forfeiture and exonerates the bond. After the window closes, the court can collect the full bail, and a cosigner may owe it under the indemnity agreement.
Call your agent the same day. With a warrant walk-through, an agent posts a new bond as the defendant surrenders on the warrant.
Common Questions About How Bail Works in Pomona
After bail posts, release in our experience takes 2 to 6 hours. A person who cannot post, or whose Magistrate Review ends in a hold, stays in custody until arraignment. That hearing must come within 48 hours of the arrest; Sundays and holidays do not count.
Cash bail means all of it. A bond costs a premium, 10% in most cases: $5,000 on $50,000 bail. A filed 8% rate may apply to veterans, active military, union members and private-attorney clients. Many LA County charges carry $0 bail and need neither, though a Magistrate Review charge means a magistrate decides release first.
Staying in custody saves the bail money, but the person waits for arraignment, where a judge might grant own-recognizance release, change the bail or keep it as set. Posting ends the wait, so they can return to work and meet a lawyer. After release, a missed court date puts the bail at risk.
Only a failure to appear triggers forfeiture (PC 1305), so a guilty verdict alone does not cost you the bail. Cash the defendant posted can go first to restitution, fines and costs, with any surplus refunded. Cash a relative posted comes back in full after judgment, claimed with the receipt. A bond premium stays with the agent.
Request a call back or call (888) 998-9511
Pomona Bail Bonds · California Department of Insurance Lic. 1844710