Chapter 276

Section 47. The court, if satisfied that there is good cause to believe that a witness will not perform the condition of his recognizance unless other security is given, may order the witness to enter into a recognizance with such sureties as the court deems necessary for his app…

Section 48. If a minor is a material witness, any other person may be allowed to recognize for his appearance; or, in the discretion of the court or justice, he may recognize in a sum not exceeding fifty dollars, which shall be valid and binding in law, notwithstanding his minori…

Section 49. A witness who, when required, refuses to recognize, either with or without sureties, shall, except as provided in the following section, be committed to jail until he complies with such order or is otherwise discharged; but if the court or justice finds that the witne…

Section 5. The notice shall, not less than fourteen days before the time appointed for trial, be served upon the person, if any, alleged to be the owner of the articles seized, by an officer authorized to serve criminal process, by leaving an attested copy thereof with him person…

Section 51. If a witness has been committed because of his inability to furnish sureties for his appearance before the superior court, the jailer shall forthwith give notice to the chief justice of the superior court, who shall direct the district attorney to inquire as to the im…

Section 52. The commissioner of correction shall from time to time make such rules relative to the diet, size of cells, amount of liberty and exercise, correspondence, visits and such other matters as he considers necessary regulating the treatment of witnesses held in jail as wi…

Section 52A. Persons held in jail for trial may, with the approval of the district attorney, and shall, by order of a justice of the superior court, be removed by the commissioner of correction to a jail in another county, and said commissioner shall, at the request of the distri…

Section 53. An officer who, having the custody or control of prisoners, causes or permits male and female prisoners to be transported together to or from a court in a vehicle, in a city of more than thirty thousand inhabitants according to the latest census, shall be punished by …

Section 54. An officer who, having the custody of a witness committed because of his failure to furnish sureties, causes or permits him to be handcuffed to a person, held in custody, charged with or sentenced for crime, or to be transported within a city to or from any court or p…

Section 55. If a person committed to jail is under indictment or complaint for, or is under recognizance to answer to, a charge of assault and battery or other misdemeanor for which he is liable in a civil action, unless the offence was committed by or upon a sheriff or other off…

Section 56. Such order discharging the recognizance, indictment or complaint of the person or the recognizance of witnesses shall be filed in the office of the clerk before the sitting of the court at which they are bound to appear; and such order superseding the commitment of th…

Section 56A. Before a judge of the superior court, district court or Boston municipal court releases, discharges or admits to bail any person arrested and charged with a crime against the person or property of another, the judicial officer shall inquire of the commonwealth as to …

Section 57. A justice of the supreme judicial or superior court, a clerk of courts or the clerk of the superior court for criminal business in the county of Suffolk, a standing or special commissioner appointed by either of said courts or, in the county of Suffolk, by the sheriff…

Section 58. A justice or a clerk or assistant clerk of the district court, a bail commissioner or master in chancery, in accordance with the applicable provisions of section fifty-seven, shall, when a person is held under arrest or committed either with or without a warrant for a…

Section 58A. (1) The commonwealth may move, based on dangerousness, for an order of pretrial detention or release on conditions for a felony offense that has as an element of the offense the use, attempted use or threatened use of physical force against the person of another or a…

Section 58B. A person who has been released after a hearing pursuant to sections 42A, 58, 58A or 87 and who has violated a condition of his release, shall be subject to a revocation of release and an order of detention. The judicial officer shall enter an order of revocation and …

Section 6. If, at the time appointed for the trial, such notice has not been duly served, or if it appears necessary that any of the articles so seized should be kept longer for the purpose of being produced or used as evidence on any trial, or if other sufficient cause appears, …

Section 60. After a conviction or a plea of guilty or of nolo contendere in the superior court in Suffolk county, the prisoner shall not be admitted to bail except in open court; but when said court is not in session, bail may be taken by any judge of a court of record or by any …

Section 61. If bail is taken out of court, the person authorized to admit to bail in criminal cases shall cause a certificate to be signed and sworn to by each surety, which shall contain his name, his residence, including the name of the street and number, if any, of the dwellin…

Section 61B. No surety under this chapter shall be compensated for acting as surety.

Section 62. If application is made to a person authorized to take bail in criminal cases in Suffolk county to accept bail out of court in a case in which no amount has been fixed, he shall, if the crime charged is not within the jurisdiction of the municipal court of the city of …

Section 63. No justice of any court, except a special justice of a district court, shall receive any fee or compensation for taking and approving bail in criminal cases, and no person authorized to admit to bail in criminal cases shall receive from any source in connection with t…

Section 64. Persons held in custody or committed upon a criminal charge, if entitled to be released upon bail, may, in the discretion of the magistrate, be admitted to bail on Sunday.

Section 65. The condition of a recognizance of a person, either with or without surety, binding him to appear before a court or justice to answer to a charge against him or to prosecute an appeal shall be so framed as to bind him personally to appear at the time so expressed, and…

Section 66. A recognizance and examination taken by a magistrate under this chapter shall be certified and returned by him to the district attorney or to the clerk of the court before which the person charged is bound to appear, on or before the first day of the sitting thereof; …

Section 68. Bail in criminal cases may be exonerated at any time before default upon their recognizance by surrendering their principal into court or to the jailer in the county where the principal is held to appear, or by such voluntary surrender by the principal himself, and in…

Section 69. Bail may surrender their principal at any time after default made upon the recognizance, or the principal may surrender himself, in the manner provided in the preceding section; and the court where the default is recorded may, upon application, remit the whole or any …

Section 7. If upon trial the property is adjudged forfeited, it shall forthwith be disposed of as provided by law. So much thereof as is ordered to be sold by the court or justice shall be sold by the sheriff and the proceeds paid to the county. All moneys seized shall be paid ov…

Section 70. If, by the act of God, of the government of the United States, of any state or by sentence of law, bail are unable without their fault to surrender their principal, they shall, upon motion before final judgment on scire facias, be exonerated and discharged by the cour…

Section 71. If a person under recognizance to appear and answer or to prosecute an appeal in a criminal case fails to appear according to his recognizance, and if a person under recognizance to testify in a criminal prosecution fails to perform the condition of his recognizance, …

Section 72. A surety in such recognizance may, by leave of the court, after default, and either before or after process has been issued against him, pay to the county treasurer or clerk of the court the amount for which he was bound as surety, with such costs as the court shall d…

Section 73. If, in a suit on a recognizance to prosecute an appeal, the penalty is adjudged forfeited, or if by leave of court such penalty has been paid without suit or before judgment as provided in the preceding section, and any forfeiture accrues by law to a person by reason …

Section 74. If the penalty of a recognizance of a party or witness in a criminal prosecution is adjudged forfeited, the court may render judgment, upon such terms as it may order, against the principal or surety, or both, for the whole of the penalty with interest, or, in its dis…

Section 75. Such action shall not be barred or defeated, nor shall judgment be arrested, by reason of neglect or omission to note or record the default of any principal or surety at the time when it happens, nor by reason of a defect in the form of the recognizance, if it suffici…

Section 76. A court which has rendered judgment on a recognizance may, upon petition of any person interested, stating the ground relied upon and filed in said court, grant a review and a rehearing of the case, upon the surrender or recaption of the prisoner who was released, or …

Section 77. Notice of the petition and a copy thereof shall be given to or served upon the district attorney for the county where the petition is pending fourteen days at least before the return day expressed therein, and such notice shall be returnable on the first Monday of the…

Section 78. If the court finds that a part of the judgment has been actually paid to or for the commonwealth upon the recognizance or judgment and orders the judgment to be reversed or entered for a less amount than has been so actually paid, it may order the amount of the differ…

Section 79. A person held in custody or committed upon a criminal charge, if entitled to be released on bail, or a person held in custody or committed as a witness to a crime, may, instead of giving surety or sureties, at any time give his personal recognizance to appear before t…

Section 8. A person aggrieved by a decree of forfeiture of a district court may appeal therefrom to the superior court; but before his appeal is allowed, he shall recognize to the commonwealth in the sum of two hundred dollars, with sufficient surety or sureties, to prosecute his…

Section 80. At any time after default of the defendant, the court may order forfeited the money, bonds or bank books deposited at the time of the recognizance and the court or clerk of the court with whom the deposit was made shall thereupon pay to the state treasurer any money s…

Section 81. The defendant may surrender himself at any time before a default, in the same manner as sureties in criminal cases may surrender their principal, and the court shall thereupon order the bank books to be reassigned and the money or bonds so deposited to be returned to …

Section 82. The term ''magistrate'', in any section of the statutes which provides for admitting persons to bail in criminal cases, shall be construed to include a bail commissioner or special magistrate, so far as to give him authority to admit prisoners to bail.

Section 82A. A person who is released by court order or other lawful authority on bail or recognizance on condition that he will appear personally at a specified time and place and who fails without sufficient excuse to so appear shall be punished by a fine of not more than ten t…

Section 83. (a) Each applicant for initial appointment as a probation officer within the office of the commissioner of probation shall pass a written examination established and administered by the court administrator, after consultation with the personnel administrator, who shal…

Section 85. Each person who receives an appointment as a probation officer shall, within six months of the date of his appointment, attend a basic orientation training course conducted by the commissioner of probation pursuant to section ninety-nine. All probation officers shall …

Section 85A. In addition to other duties, a probation officer of the probate court may, when ordered to do so by the court, examine all records and files in divorce, legal separation, annulment, custody and paternity cases in which orders or decrees have been entered to ascertain…

Section 85B. Said probation officer shall have full power, by citation or other order duly issued by the probate court, to compel the attendance of witnesses to take testimony and do each and every thing necessary, including initiating contempt proceedings, to collect any and all…

Section 87. The superior court, any district court and any juvenile court may place on probation in the care of its probation officer any person before it charged with an offense or a crime for such time and upon such conditions as it deems proper, with the defendant's consent, b…

Section 87A. The conditions of probation imposed by a court upon a person pursuant to section eighty-seven of this chapter, section fifty-eight of chapter one hundred and nineteen or section one or section one A of chapter two hundred and seventy-nine, may include, but shall not …

Section 87B. (a) As used in this section, the following words shall, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, have the following meanings:— ''Compliance'', the absence of a judicial finding of a violation of court-ordered conditions of post-disposition probation supervision…