Travis County Jail Release +

The person calling from jail is scared, confused, embarrassed, worried, desperate, alone. The person answering the phone is probably shocked, worried, scared, and may not have any idea where to turn to help their loved one in crisis.

If you are the person receiving that call, we are here to help.

When someone is arrested, the first concern is getting out of jail – as fast as possible. Just as important is legal protection – preserving legal rights, immediately investigating and mitigating damage, and, whenever possible, working to stop the case from going forward.

We do both.

We can get you out of jail – but it doesn’t stop there. Our goal is to provide the best legal representation possible and as criminal defense attorneys, we can help our clients the most by getting involved as soon as someone is arrested.

By meeting with them from the outset we can give advice about their rights, the criminal process, and often provide answers and access that other agencies, such as bondsmen, cannot. We can gather details, investigate the circumstances of the arrest, and halt an interrogation of your loved one. In short, the early involvement of obtaining a jail release allows us the opportunity to secure a more favorable position for their defense, right from the beginning. And like a first impression, there is no second opportunity.

One of the most rewarding aspects of our job is getting someone get out of jail. In the middle of the workday or in the wee hours of the morning, resolving such a crisis is one of the reasons we chose this profession. But it’s just a start. We are not completely satisfied until your case is brought to a just conclusion. Call us for immediate assistance.

Please have as much as the following information available as possible so we can be of better help to you during our telephone conversation:

1) Name and date of birth of the person arrested
2) When the person was arrested
3) Their employment or education history
4) Your relationship to the person in jail
5) Which jail they called you from
6) What they were arrested for [if you don’t have it, we can look it up]
7) Bond amount [if you don’t have it, we can look it up]

After getting this information, we may need to make some follow-up phone calls to ascertain the bond amount and calculate the cost of doing the jail release. Once we can quote the fee for the release, we will either take payment by credit card over the phone, or make other payment arrangements with you.

Our office hours are 8:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. and we can be reached during these hours at (512) 381-9955. To get someone out of jail after-hours, please call (512) 536-1374.

In some situations, a portion of the amount paid toward a jail release may be credited toward legal fees if we are later hired to handle the criminal case.

3. Why hire a lawyer over a bail bondsman?

Nobody plans to be arrested. Most of our clients have never had to make arrangements to get somebody out of jail, and we acknowledge that it can be a sensitive and, at times, embarrassing situation. It is equally awkward for the person in jail. Given everything that has just happened, people that have just been arrested have a number of legal questions that a bail bondsman can’t answer. We feel that meeting with a client in their greatest moment of crisis is of tremendous importance—even at 4:00 in the morning.

First, you will pay less.
When you hire a bail bondsman, you will pay 10%- 20% of the bond amount plus guaranteed security and collateral in the amount of double the bond.

Second, it's a better investment.
A bail bondsman makes 99% of their money from the first couple of hours of getting you out of jail. They're taking a financial risk based on whether or not their client will show up to court in the future. For example, if you spend $4,000 on a bail bondsman to get you out of jail, you are paying them $1,000- $2,000 an hour. The bondsman will hold the bond until the end of your case, but you will never get that money back, nor can it be applied to attorney's fees. This money can be better invested in hiring a good defense lawyer than in making a quick decision to use a bail bondsman to get someone out of jail.

Third, a lawyer can start on your case at this very important time.
Investigation begins the moment you've been arrested. Once someone is arrested and in jail, the clock starts ticking in terms of finding witnesses, getting witness statements, collecting evidence, and mounting an effective defense to possibly keep a case from being filed or even indicted. Once somebody is out of jail, normally they tend to rest on their heels and wait as their court date draws near. This is a bad idea! If you are serious about contesting your case and keeping a conviction off of your record, you should have a lawyer on your case from the minute you step foot in jail. That lawyer will be able to take a very detailed statement from you, as we expend a lot of time with interviews and collecting evidence. We can begin working on the case immediately to determine if there is any evidence that may have been lost or destroyed. Furthermore, by having a lawyer involved at the outset, we are sometimes able to get affidavits, non-prosecution, or witness statements that may not be as valuable if they are taken weeks or months after the date of arrest. The police officers likely already have the witness statements from the day of or day before the arrest and it is important, if not imperative, for us to be on an equal playing field with them. The clients that use our services to get them out of jail are often able to mount a very effective defense because we have such an advantage in terms of time.

Fourth, hiring a lawyer to perform your jail release will save you time
and stress.
If you hire a lawyer for a jail release, there will be one less person you will have to tell the traumatic events of your arrest to. By having a lawyer involved at the outset, hiring an attorney will no longer be on your "to-do" list. Aside from the fact that we will credit a portion of the jail release fee towards your defense, we will be in a better position to advise you as to what to do when you are out of jail, especially in cases involving protective orders, pretrial release, personal bonds or different conditions of those bonds. We can advise you where to stay or what do you need to do in order to limit your exposure to the criminal system. If we are able to get your case resolved pretrial or even pre-indictment, you will save money on attorney's fees. To read more about us, visit www.sg-llp.com, our criminal defense website.

About Travis County Jail and Del Valle Jail

Travis County Jail is the only "high rise" jail facility in operation in Travis County and is located in downtown Austin, adjacent to the County Courthouse and connected to Blackwell-Thurman, the new Criminal Justice Center.

This five-story facility was constructed as a maximum-security jail and currently houses all custody levels of inmates. On any given day the Travis County Jail houses approximately 420 inmates. This includes inmates who have demonstrated a need for a more secure housing environment, those who are mentally unstable or those whose medical needs require a more constant vigilance.

The Del Valle Jail / Correctional Complex is a campus style correctional facility encompassing approximately 130 acres. The Complex consists of 18 inmate-housing facilities and numerous support buildings to include a warehouse, healthcare facility, kitchen, inmate property, maintenance, and marketable skills.

Inmate housing design at the Complex ranges from minimum to maximum security with the majority being designed for minimum custody level inmates. The Del Valle Jail experiences an average daily population of roughly 1850 inmates.