There are statistics that show that of those who go to jail, most of them will have been before. But there are those that are first timers. Either they haven’t committed a crime worthy of jail time before, their lawyer has reduced their sentence or they just haven’t been caught before. However, if you are heading down this path, there are a few things that you should know.
Don’t Underestimate Your Crime
Many people think that what they have done doesn’t mean that they deserve to be arrested or go to jail. Even if it doesn’t, if you have the wrong attitude, you might just be arrested anyway. It could be something that normally would warrant a fine or even just a warning, like driving without your insurance card or driver’s license on your person.
Don’t Be Cocky with the Police
If you’ve been pulled over by a cop or one has stopped you on a night out, remember that they are just doing their job. It’s not a good time to be a police man and they are just trying to keep us safe. Be respectful, apologetic and take into account what they say and you may just be let off with a warning. However, if you act cocky and adverse to authority during the traffic stop, you may just find yourself in jail anyway.
Save on Bail Bonds Money
If you’re going to be put in jail for the weekend or even just the night, you might want to avoid calling someone to come and bail you out. It costs a lot of money and you have it, great, but if not, it’s only one or two nights and then you’ll get released anyway. Keep in mind that if you get arrest between Sunday and Thursday, you’ll likely just spend the one night, if you haven’t committed a high level crime. However, if it’s a Friday night and you don’t have bail bonds, then you’ll probably stay all weekend until the powers that be return on Monday. Granted, if you don’t have money, you could have your family employ a bail bond agency or some kind of bail bond service that will front you the money. But really, why do you need bail if you are going to be getting out soon anyway? You could have a bail bondsman come and get you out but you would still owe some money, even if it’s not all of it and that could be saved by simply doing your 24 hours in jail.
Hope for Your Own Cell
The worst part about staying a night or two is having to sleep in the vicinity of people that you don’t know or trust. However, a single person cell isn’t available at all jail facilities, so you may find yourself in that situation. However, some places do, depending on the crime rate of the city. If you’ve decided not to hire a bail bondsman and are going to stick it out for the night- the best case scenario is that you have your own cell. Of course, you can’t request this, you’re not in a hotel; you’ll go where you’re told. But, you can always hope. In most jails, there is a phone on the wall inside the cell so if you do end up in a community cell and you just can’t hang, you can call someone to come and bail you out and deal with the consequences of the spent money later.
Try and Be Compliant
There’s nothing worse than an entitled person. Picture someone breaking the law and get rightfully arrested and then standing there, shouting obscenities at the officers in the jail. Of course, everyone has rights, but if you were arrested because of your crime, then you deserve to be there. It’s best to keep your head down and do your time, vowing to never be in this situation again. Getting angry and belligerent at those in authority is going to gain you nothing. If you decide to think about what you’ve done and realize that you deserve to be there, you’ll be a lot more likely to have a calm and relatively uneventful jail stint.
