Bail and Securing Orders in New York

What happens at arraignment?

The judge must issue a securing order, which is the decision about whether and on what terms you are released while the case is pending. There are three possibilities:

Outcome	When it is available
Release on your own recognizance	The default in every case that is not a qualifying offense
Release under non-monetary conditions	Where release on recognizance will not reasonably assure your return to court
Bail, or remand	Only where the charge is a qualifying offense. Remand additionally requires that it be a felony

Release on recognizance is a presumption, not a courtesy. Under CPL 510.10(3) the court “shall” release you on your own recognizance unless it finds, on the record or in writing, that doing so will not reasonably assure your return.

Can the judge set bail on any charge?

No. Bail may only be set where the charge appears on a statutory list of qualifying offenses. On everything else the court is limited to release, with or without conditions.

The list is longer and less intuitive than people assume:

• Most, but not all, violent felonies. Certain second degree robbery and second degree burglary charges are excluded
• Any class A felony, though for drug felonies only the highest level
• Witness intimidation and witness tampering
• Any crime alleged to have caused a death
• Criminal contempt where an order of protection was violated and the protected person is a family or household member
• Sex offenses, including any misdemeanor under the sex offense article
• Strangulation and criminal obstruction of breathing against a family or household member
• A felony committed while on probation or post-release supervision
• Certain repeat conduct while already released on an earlier case

The claim that bail was eliminated for all misdemeanors is false. Several categories reach misdemeanors directly.

One recent clarification worth knowing: in February 2026 the Second Department held that the provision covering offenses committed while under supervision reaches probation and post-release supervision, but not parole. Being on parole does not by itself make an otherwise non-qualifying felony bail-eligible.

Can a judge consider whether you are dangerous?

Not when setting bail in the first place. Sometimes, later, on a motion to revoke. Both halves of that answer get stated wrongly.

The securing order statutes do not contain the words dangerousness, public safety, or danger to the community. The question the court is answering is whether you will come back to court, and the factors it weighs are directed at that.

But the analysis is different once someone is already released. Where a defendant at liberty on a felony is alleged to have committed a new violent or class A felony, the Court of Appeals held in 2024 that a court may consider the danger the defendant poses to the community, provided it holds the hearing the statute requires. In that context, flight risk factors are not the relevant ones.

So “judges may consider dangerousness” and “judges may never consider dangerousness” are both wrong. The answer depends on which decision is being made.

Does the judge have to choose the least restrictive option?

No, not any more, and this is the single most common error in published material about New York bail.

The “least restrictive alternative” requirement was part of the 2019 reforms. It was repealed effective 2 June 2023. The phrase no longer appears anywhere in the securing order statutes.

What replaced it: the court must make an individualized determination about risk of flight, consider the kind and degree of control or restriction necessary to reasonably assure return to court, select a securing order consistent with that determination, and explain the basis on the record or in writing.

The Court of Appeals confirmed this in October 2025, faulting a trial judge who had recited “least restrictive means,” describing it plainly as the old legal standard. The same decision noted the judge had also looked to the wrong statute for the factors.

That matters practically. Articles reciting the least restrictive standard, or listing the factors from the repealed provision, are describing law that has not applied for over three years.

Where do the factors actually come from?

From CPL 510.10(1), not from the section people usually cite. The provision that used to carry the factor list was hollowed out in 2023 and is now essentially a cross reference.

The current factors are directed at return to court and include your activities and history, your ties to the community, your record of responding to court appearances, any history of violating orders of protection, any history involving firearms, and the charges you face.

The list is not exclusive. Courts may weigh other genuinely relevant information, but only where it bears on the likelihood that you will return.

What forms can bail take?

Bail is not just cash. CPL 520.10 provides nine forms, including cash, an insurance company bail bond, secured and partially secured bonds, unsecured bonds, and payment by credit card.

Two rules matter more than the list:

• Where the court designates forms, it must direct that bail be posted in three or more of them, and one must be either an unsecured or a partially secured surety bond. A partially secured bond requires a deposit of no more than ten percent.
• Cash-only bail is unlawful. The Court of Appeals held in 2012 that a court may not fix only one form of bail, and the statute has become stricter since.

Cash may always be posted in the amount set, even where the order did not specify it.

What are non-monetary conditions?

Conditions are the middle option, and they are meant to be tailored rather than imposed from a menu. They can include supervision by pretrial services, travel restrictions or passport surrender, no contact with witnesses, counseling or treatment programming, maintaining employment or housing, obeying an order of protection, and electronic monitoring.

Several protections apply:

• You cannot be charged for the cost of any condition.
• At later appearances the court must consider lessening conditions.
• Adding a condition requires notice, an opportunity to be heard with cross-examination, and a finding by clear and convincing evidence that you violated an existing one in an important respect.

Electronic monitoring is a last resort by statute. It requires an individualized finding that you fall within a defined eligible category and that no other realistic condition will suffice. It is capped at 60 days, renewable only after a fresh determination, and it cannot be run by a for-profit company. A person on electronic monitoring is treated as in custody for certain timing rules.

Can bail be revoked after you are released?

Yes, through two different routes, and the procedure differs.

Route	Trigger	What is required
Good cause	Any securing order	A summary hearing, on a flight-risk rationale
New serious felony	A felony defendant at liberty allegedly commits a class A or violent felony, or intimidates a witness	Reasonable cause, plus a mandatory hearing with evidence and cross-examination. Detention capped at 90 days
Specified violations	Persistent and willful failure to appear, violating an order of protection, or committing a felony while at liberty on a felony	Clear and convincing evidence, plus a hearing

There is also a protection people rarely know about: except where a new crime is charged, and absent credible evidence that a missed appearance was willful, the court must give at least 48 hours notice before issuing a bench warrant.

What if the judge gets it wrong?

The remedy is a habeas corpus proceeding challenging the securing order. Two realistic expectations:

• The reviewing court does not decide bail afresh. It examines whether constitutional or statutory standards were violated, on the record that was before the arraigning judge.
• A defective ruling usually means the case goes back, not that you go home. Where the Court of Appeals found a securing order inadequately explained in 2025, the remedy was to remit for a proper determination, not release.

In practice the Second Department, which covers Nassau County, has done all of these in recent cases: remitted for a compliant determination, set bail itself in three forms with conditions, ordered release on recognizance with conditions, and dismissed the petition.

How long can you be held before an indictment?

Two timing rules matter if you are in custody:

• On a felony complaint, you are generally entitled to release on recognizance after 120 hours in custody without an indictment, disposition or hearing, extended to 144 hours where a weekend or holiday intervenes.
• On a misdemeanor complaint that has not been replaced by a proper accusatory instrument, the period is five days, excluding Sunday.

Where does arraignment happen in Nassau County?

Every Nassau criminal case is arraigned at Nassau County District Court, 99 Main Street in Hempstead, misdemeanors and felonies alike, because the District Court holds preliminary jurisdiction over felonies.

Two practical points:

• The arraignment part sits seven days a week, including holidays. Someone arrested on a Saturday is arraigned on a weekend, not held until Monday.
• Glen Cove and Long Beach City Courts arraign their own custodial cases on weekdays, but weekend and holiday arrests from those cities go to the District Court.

Felony cases move up to Nassau County Court at 262 Old Country Road in Mineola, and in some matters to Supreme Court, Nassau County, once indicted. People held in custody are at the Nassau County Correctional Center in East Meadow.

Related: what happens at an arraignment, desk appearance tickets, and criminal defense in Nassau County.