Massachusetts Statutes

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…

Section 88. Every court appointing probation officers may employ such clerical assistance as it deems necessary to keep, index and consolidate the records required to be kept by probation officers and for such other work in connection with its probation service as the court may d…

Section 89. The superior court or the justice of a district court, including in such term the Worcester juvenile court, the Boston juvenile court, the Bristol county juvenile court and the Springfield juvenile court, may, in the case of a vacancy in the position of probation offi…

Section 89A. The superior court or the justice of a district court may appoint deputy probation officers who shall serve without compensation as counsellors to children under the age of 18 who have been placed in the care of probation officers under section eighty-seven in order …

Section 89B. Probation officers appointed under subsection (f) of section 83 may be designated by the commissioner of probation to exclusively supervise young adults, who are 18 to 24 years of age and have been placed in the care of probation officers under section 87, so that th…

Section 9. The governor, if he deems the public good so requires, may offer a suitable reward of not more than ten thousand dollars in any one case to be paid by the commonwealth to any person who, in consequence of such offer, apprehends, brings back and secures a person who is …

Section 90. A probation officer shall not be an active member of the regular police force, but so far as necessary in the performance of his official duties shall, except as otherwise provided, have all the powers of a police officer, and if appointed by the superior court may, b…

Section 91. Probation officers appointed by the Boston juvenile court may serve such process as may be directed to them by the court.

Section 92. If a person is placed on probation upon condition that he make restitution or reparation to the person injured by him in the commission of his offence, and payment is not made at once, the court may order that it shall be made to the probation officer, who shall give …

Section 92A. A person found guilty of violating the provisions of sections twenty-seven, twenty-eight, one hundred and eleven B and one hundred and thirty-nine of chapter two hundred and sixty-six shall, in all cases, upon conviction, in addition to any other punishment, be order…

Section 93. Except as provided by section one of chapter two hundred and seventy-nine, money collected by a probation officer under order of the court by which he is appointed, if unclaimed after one year from the time of its collection, shall, upon further order of the court, be…

Section 94. The reasonable expenses, including supplies and equipment, incurred by probation officers of the superior court and the probate court in the performance of their duties shall be approved and apportioned by the court, and paid by the commonwealth. Such reasonable expen…

Section 95. The superior courts or the Boston, Springfield, Bristol county and Worcester juvenile courts or a district court, except the municipal court of the city of Boston, may authorize a probation officer to expend such amount as the court considers expedient for the tempora…

Section 96. Any probation officer who refuses or neglects to perform any of the duties required of him shall forfeit two hundred dollars to the use of the commonwealth.

Section 97. Sections eighty-three to ninety-six, inclusive, shall not authorize a probation officer to interfere with any of the duties required of the department of youth services under the law relative to juvenile offenders.

Section 98. There shall be an office of probation which shall be under the supervision, direction and control of a commissioner of probation. The commissioner shall be appointed, and may be removed, by the chief justice of the trial court and the court administrator, with the adv…

Section 98A. There shall be a board to advise the commissioner of probation and the court administrator. The board shall make recommendations on the management of the office of probation. The board shall consist of 9 members to be appointed by the supreme judicial court: 2 person…

Section 99. The commissioner shall have executive control and supervision of the probation service and shall have the power to: (1) supervise the probation work in all of the courts of the commonwealth and, for such purposes, the commissioner and the commissioner's staff shall ha…