How Much Is Bail in Massachusetts by Charge Type?

Massachusetts does not publish a bail schedule, so there is no fixed dollar amount tied to a specific charge. The amount of bail in Massachusetts is set individually for each defendant, starting from release on personal recognizance and moving to cash only when a judge decides free release won’t reasonably ensure you come back to court.¹ That said, patterns exist. The charge type is one of the strongest signals of what to expect, and the ranges below reflect how courts across the state generally handle each category.

Typical Bail Ranges by Charge Type

Two people arrested for the same offense can end up with very different bail outcomes, so treat these as starting points rather than quotes. The judge still weighs your ties to the community, your record, and your finances before landing on a number.

Misdemeanors

Massachusetts misdemeanors carry a maximum sentence of two and a half years in a house of correction.² For charges like simple assault, disorderly conduct, shoplifting under $250, or minor drug possession, judges frequently release defendants on personal recognizance, especially first-time offenders with stable housing and employment. When cash bail is set for a misdemeanor, it usually falls somewhere between a few hundred and a few thousand dollars.

Under the 2018 Criminal Justice Reform Act, bail cannot exceed what is needed to ensure a court appearance once the defendant’s finances are taken into account.³ For a low-level misdemeanor with a defendant who has community ties, setting even a modest cash amount requires the judge to explain why personal recognizance won’t work.

Non-Violent Felonies

Felony charges that carry state prison sentences above two and a half years bring higher bail figures. For non-violent felonies such as large-scale theft or fraud, amounts often land between several thousand and tens of thousands of dollars.

Violent Felonies

Armed robbery, serious assaults, and sexual offenses can push bail to $50,000 or well above. Judges frequently pair the cash amount with conditions like GPS monitoring, stay-away orders, or surrender of passports. On these charges, the prosecution can also ask for a dangerousness hearing under Section 58A instead of a monetary bail, which is covered further down.

Drug Trafficking

Drug trafficking charges trigger some of the highest bail amounts in the state, especially when a mandatory minimum of three years or more applies. Depending on the substance and quantity, penalties for mandatory offenses run from two and a half years up to life imprisonment.⁴ When the potential prison term is that severe, judges treat flight risk as correspondingly high.

Domestic Violence and Restraining Order Violations

Domestic violence charges sit in a distinct category. They can trigger a dangerousness hearing regardless of whether the underlying charge is a misdemeanor or a felony, and bail decisions lean heavily on victim safety. Even when the charge would normally warrant low bail, judges often impose no-contact orders and GPS monitoring on top of any cash amount, or the prosecution may seek detention outright.

OUI

A first-offense OUI usually results in personal recognizance or low bail. Second and third offenses commonly see bail somewhere between $500 and $10,000, with conditions like alcohol monitoring or license surrender. A third or subsequent OUI within ten years of the last conviction is one of the offenses that can trigger a dangerousness hearing, meaning the prosecution can argue for pretrial detention entirely.⁵

What the Judge Actually Weighs

The charge sets the ballpark. Everything else moves you within it, or out of it entirely. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 276, Section 58 lists the factors the person setting bail must consider once personal recognizance has been ruled out:

The offense itself, the circumstances surrounding it, and the potential penalty.
Community ties, including family, length of residence, employment, and reputation.
Your financial resources and ability to actually post the bail amount.
Criminal and court history, including prior convictions, drug distribution or dependency history, prior failures to appear, and any history of flight or use of a false identity.
Any documented history of mental illness.
Whether you are already on bail for another charge, on probation, or on parole.
Whether the charges involve abuse or violate a restraining order.¹

Judges are not working from a scorecard. The same factor can cut either way. A long record with missed court dates pushes bail up; steady employment, a fixed address, and a clean history push it down or eliminate it.

The Ability-to-Pay Rule

The single most important change to Massachusetts bail practice in the last decade is the explicit requirement that judges consider what you can actually afford. In Brangan v. Commonwealth (2017), the Supreme Judicial Court held that judges must account for a defendant’s financial resources when setting bail, and that dangerousness cannot be used as a hidden reason to inflate an amount. If the prosecution thinks a defendant is dangerous, it has to pursue a Section 58A hearing rather than quietly set bail too high to post.⁶

The 2018 Criminal Justice Reform Act codified and extended that rule. When bail is set at an amount likely to result in long-term pretrial detention because the defendant can’t afford it, the judge must provide written or recorded findings explaining why no affordable amount or non-financial condition would ensure appearance, how the number was calculated with the defendant’s finances in mind, and why the state’s interest outweighs the impact of detention on the defendant and their family.³

The rule is not that bail must always be affordable. It’s that unaffordable bail demands an explanation. A $5,000 bail on someone earning minimum wage with no savings is vulnerable on review if the judge never explained on the record why a lower number wouldn’t work.

Alternatives to Cash Bail

Because the law pushes judges toward non-monetary conditions before cash, the answer to “how much” is sometimes “nothing,” paired with conditions. Common alternatives:

Personal recognizance: release on your promise to appear, with no money required. This is the statutory default.
Conditions of release: curfews, travel restrictions, drug or alcohol testing, stay-away orders, or surrender of firearms.
Electronic monitoring: GPS ankle bracelets, often used in domestic violence cases or where a stay-away order is in place. Defendants typically bear the daily monitoring cost.⁷
Supervised release: regular check-ins with a pretrial services officer, sometimes combined with substance abuse treatment or mental health counseling.

When There Is No Bail: Section 58A

For certain serious charges, the prosecution can bypass the bail question and ask the court to hold you without bail on dangerousness grounds. If the judge agrees, you can be held for up to 120 days before trial.⁵

Section 58A only applies to specific categories of offenses:

Violent felonies, including any felony involving the use, attempted use, or threat of physical force, and including burglary and arson.
Domestic violence offenses, including any misdemeanor or felony involving abuse, or any offense committed while a protective order was in effect.
Serious drug offenses carrying a mandatory minimum of three years or more.
A third or subsequent OUI within ten years.
Firearms offenses involving illegal carrying, trafficking, or possession by someone previously convicted of a violent crime.
Witness intimidation charges.⁵

At the hearing, the prosecution must prove by clear and convincing evidence that no release conditions can reasonably assure the safety of any person or the community. If the court orders detention, the 120-day clock starts, and if the case hasn’t gone to trial within that window, you are entitled to a new hearing on release conditions.

No Commercial Bail Bondsmen in Massachusetts

One structural feature changes what “how much” really means here. Massachusetts abolished the commercial bail bond industry in 1980 and is one of only a handful of states with that prohibition. You will not find a bail bond storefront offering to post your bail for a 10% fee.

Instead, defendants post the full cash amount directly with the court, or in some circumstances arrange a surety through a personal contact. If you post cash bail and appear at all court dates, the full amount is returned at the end of the case, minus any applicable fees or fines. That’s a different system from most states, where the 10% premium paid to a bondsman is gone regardless of outcome.

The practical consequence: inability to afford bail in Massachusetts translates directly into detention. There is no bondsman to bridge the gap at a discount. That reality is part of why the ability-to-pay rule and the preference for personal recognizance carry so much weight in Massachusetts courts.

Challenging the Amount

If bail was set in district court and you think it’s too high, you can petition the superior court for review. The superior court judge is not bound by the district court’s findings and can conduct a fresh evaluation. Both sides can bring new evidence. The reviewing judge has full authority to increase bail, decrease it, release you on personal recognizance, or add or remove conditions.¹

Bail review petitions should be heard the same day they’re filed, or the next day if that isn’t practical. Reviews succeed most often when there is something new to present: employment verification that wasn’t ready at arraignment, a family member willing to serve as a third-party custodian, documentation of financial hardship that makes the current amount effectively a detention order, or a showing that the initial hearing skipped the ability-to-pay analysis the law requires. A vague request to lower bail without new information rarely moves the number.

1
Mass.gov. Massachusetts General Laws c276 Section 58
2
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Part IV Title II Chapter 279 Section 6
3
General Court of Massachusetts. Session Law – Acts of 2018 Chapter 69
4
Mass.gov. Sentencing Guidelines – Mandatory Offenses
5
Mass.gov. Massachusetts General Laws c276 Section 58A
6
Justia U.S. Law. Brangan v Commonwealth
7
Harvard Kennedy School. The Social Costs of Pretrial, Court-Ordered Electronic Monitoring