After a loved one is incarcerated, it becomes challenging for them to fight their legal battles on their own. Fortunately, there are attorneys familiar with Prince William County jails and how they could help accused individuals fight for their right to a fair trial. Reach out to an attorney today.
Although there are holding stations at the police stations in Prince William County, the main jail is the Prince William County and Manassas Regional Adult Detention Center, located in Manassas, adjacent to the courthouse. The center holds inmates from Prince William County as well as the city of Manassas and the city of Manassas Park.
The most important way an attorney represents a person’s interests while they are in jail is to file motions on their behalf, investigate, and prepare their case for trial. Jail visits are helpful in informing a client of their rights and the procedure that they face in a case, and it is also possible even while a client is in jail to be able to contact family and to help arrange accommodations for their release.
When someone is booked in Prince William County, they are almost always taken into one of the county police sub-stations or one of the police stations for the local police in the jurisdiction where they are arrested. If they are arrested on a warrant, they would then be transferred to the jurisdiction holding the warrant. For example, if someone resides in the city of Manassas Park but is arrested on a Prince William County warrant, they would generally be taken from the city of Manassas Park to one of the Prince William County jails or sub-stations and, from there, transferred to the adult detention center. At the center, they would be formally booked and moved to the pod where they would reside until their release or until their next transfer.
Jail in Prince William County is run not by the sheriff’s department, but by a private security force, and the adult detention center in Prince William County houses people who are serving time based on convictions in Prince William County or awaiting trial. A variety of people are housed in the jail, and several different residential programs, pods, and dorms are available to those to be incarcerated for some period.
For someone who has just been arrested and booked in the detention center, the first thing they could expect is to appear in front of a judge for a video arraignment, in most cases the next business day. In some cases, the judge does not have an opportunity to set or change their bond or address their bond. In many cases, bond determination would be continued until a defense attorney could file a motion for that individual.
Although several efforts are underway to abolish cash bail systems in Virginia, the court still often requires a cash or a corporate surety bond before an individual could be released from jail. A cash or a corporate surety bond from a bondsman is not a requirement of law and has no other basis for being required in any case. The court could set any conditions for bail that it determines are reasonably necessary to ensure that the defendant would appear in court and not pose a danger to members of the public, but those conditions do not have to include a bond and, in most cases, should not include a cash or corporate surety bond.
It is possible in Prince William County for a judge to order pretrial supervision, and the county has an excellent pretrial supervision program. When a person is first incarcerated, they would be interviewed by pretrial services, which would recommend to the court whether bond should be set in their case and whether they should be released with a condition to report back to pretrial services for supervision. It is possible the court would require an array of levels of supervision to ensure that the person would appear in court and is not a danger to the public while out on bail, up to and including house arrest, or intensive pretrial supervision.
When arrested, it may feel intimidating to be taken to Prince William County jails. However, simply because of your incarceration, you are no less without legal defense. An attorney could still represent your interests in court and outside of court while you remain detained. If you feel as though an attorney could represent a loved one, reach out today.
Do not send us confidential information related to you or your company until you speak with one of our attorneys and get authorization to send that information to us.