Bellevue Hospital Prison Ward Inmate Bail & Bonds

A judge decides bail at arraignment, the opening hearing of the case. Most people reach that point roughly a day after arrest. Each borough holds arraignments in its own Criminal Court:

• The Bronx (Bronx County): 215 East 161st Street, Bronx, NY 10451, 718-618-2400. The part sits daily, 9 a.m. to 1 a.m.
• Queens: 125-01 Queens Boulevard, Kew Gardens, NY 11415, 718-298-0792. Daily, 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., two hours shorter than most.
• Staten Island (Richmond County): 26 Central Avenue, Staten Island, NY 10301, 718-675-8558. Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; weekends 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• Manhattan (New York County): 100 Centre Street, New York, NY 10013, 646-386-4511. Daily, 9 a.m. to 1 a.m.
• Brooklyn (Kings County): 120 Schermerhorn Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201, 347-404-9400. Daily, 9 a.m. to 1 a.m.

Between the precinct and the judge comes central booking. NYPD officers hold people there, in the criminal courthouse of the borough of arrest. Most arrive within 4 to 6 hours of the arrest, and family visits are not allowed.

Brooklyn Central Booking is at 120 Schermerhorn Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201; call 718-875-6319. Manhattan Central Booking, 100 Centre Street, New York, NY 10013, answers at 212-347-2801. Staten Island Central Booking is part of the Staten Island Criminal Court, 26 Central Avenue, Staten Island, NY 10301, 718-876-8493. Bronx Central Booking shares 215 East 161st Street, Bronx, NY 10451, and the Bronx line in the list above reaches it. Queens Central Booking is at 125-01 Queens Boulevard, Kew Gardens, NY 11415, 718-268-4523.

Legal Aid's advice: ask the booking station for the arrest number, then hand that number to the borough's Criminal Court clerk. That office knows the arraignment start time and the room number.

Sometimes police drive a person to an emergency room before any judge is involved. In that case NYPD still has them, and no bail exists yet. Ring the arraignment number for the borough where the arrest took place, then ask when and where the hearing will happen. A free lawyer must be offered when release is weighed (CPL 510.10(2)).

All of these belong to one city system. Patients can shift from one to another as their health gets better or worse:

• Bellevue Hospital Prison Ward, 462 1st Avenue, New York, NY 10016: guarded hospital beds for people who must be admitted.
• Bellevue Outposted Therapeutic Housing Unit, same address. Its 104 beds came into use in April 2026. People here have serious illness, like cancer, but don't need to be admitted.
• Elmhurst Hospital Prison Ward, 79-01 Broadway, Queens, NY 11370: the twin secure unit in a Queens hospital.
• Eric M. Taylor Center, 10-10 Hazen Street, East Elmhurst, NY 11370: where each newly jailed man is first processed. It also has mental observation units.
• Rose M. Singer Center, 19-19 Hazen Street, East Elmhurst, NY 11370: the women's jail and women's intake. Its Special Considerations Unit is for transgender, intersex, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming people.
• George R. Vierno Center, 09-09 Hazen Street, East Elmhurst, NY 11370: men, both waiting for trial and sentenced. It runs mental observation housing and the PACE unit.
• Otis Bantum Correctional Center, 16-00 Hazen Street, East Elmhurst, NY 11370: men in dorm or cell housing, and a Special Management Unit.
• Robert N. Davoren Complex, 11-11 Hazen Street, East Elmhurst, NY 11370: men, young adults aged 18 to 21 among them.
• RESH (RMSC Enhanced Supervised Housing), 19-19 Hazen Street, East Elmhurst, NY 11370: men sent to restrictive housing for breaking jail rules. Intake, medical care and visits are handled inside the unit.
• West Facility, 16-06 Hazen Street, East Elmhurst, NY 11370: one-person cells. The Communicable Disease Unit is located here.
• Kids go to ACS, never DOC: Crossroads Juvenile Center, 17 Bristol Street, Brooklyn, NY 11212, 718-240-3800, or Horizon Juvenile Center, 560 Brook Avenue, Bronx, NY 10455, 718-292-0065.

Rikers once had an infirmary jail, the North Infirmary Command. The city shut it for good in June 2026.

A New York judge picks one of four "securing orders" (CPL 500.10, 510.10):

• Own recognizance: a promise to come back. No money changes hands.
• Conditions: rules such as check-ins, at no cost to the person (CPL 500.10(3-a)). A monitor bracelet is reserved for some charges and runs 60 days at most per order (CPL 510.40(4)).
• Bail: money or a bond, returned if the person keeps every date.
• Remand: jail with no bail at all, possible only on certain felonies.

On most misdemeanors, and on felonies that aren't violent, the person must be released, with rules or without (CPL 510.10(3)). Money can be demanded only on "qualifying" charges, among them violent felonies, some family violence counts, and a felony charged while on probation (CPL 510.10(4)). In 2024, city judges let 62 percent go on a promise and 22 percent go with conditions. Only 15 percent got a bail amount, and 1 percent were held with none. Judges can also order the Supervised Release Program, where staff send court reminders, help with the case and connect people to treatment.

If you want the legal details, our overview of New York bail law lists what a judge must weigh.

New York City has no fixed price list for bail. The judge has to weigh what the person can afford and whether a given sum would be a real hardship (CPL 510.10(1)). Here is the highest sentence for each class of charge, which tells you how heavy the case is:

• Violation: 15 days, $250 fine
• Class B misdemeanor: 3 months, $500
• Class A misdemeanor: 364 days, $1,000
• Class E felony: 4 years
• Class D felony: 7 years (second-degree assault, a violent D, carries 2 to 7)
• Class C felony: 15 years (second-degree robbery or burglary count as violent C crimes)
• Class B felony: 25 years (first-degree robbery, for one)
• Class A felony: life

Any time a judge asks for money, the judge has to offer at least three payment methods. One of them is always an unsecured or partially secured surety bond (CPL 520.10(2)(b)), and the partially secured kind asks for 10 percent down at most. To learn your loved one's number, read the lookup or dial 311.

Bail goes to DOC, never to the hospital billing desk. DOC's windows take it for anyone in its custody, wherever that person sleeps tonight, so a hospital patient is bailed out exactly like someone on Rikers.

1. Pull up your loved one on the Person in Custody Lookup. Write down the dollar figure, plus either ID number it shows (NYSID, or Book and Case).
2. Bring a government photo ID that shows who you are.
3. Have the precise amount ready. Cashiers hand back no change.
4. Head to any DOC bail window. White Street in Manhattan and the Rikers cashier run around the clock.
5. Guard your receipt. It is your proof for a refund.
6. Weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., DOC's Office of Constituent and Grievance Services can explain how a patient's release will unfold: 718-546-1500.

New York law says that once bail is in, custody must end at once (CPL 520.15). Treatment is another matter. A freed patient may still need the hospital, so talk with the medical team about next steps.

• Manhattan Detention Complex, 125 White Street, New York, NY 10013: 24 hours, seven days.
• Brooklyn, 120 Schermerhorn Street, Room 101C, Brooklyn, NY 11201: daily from 8:30 a.m. until 1 a.m.
• Rikers Island's round-the-clock Central Cashier, East Elmhurst, NY 11370: open every hour of every day.
• The Bronx, 215 East 161st Street, Bronx, NY 10451 (Room M-05C, downstairs): Monday and Tuesday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Wednesdays to Fridays 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.; shut Saturday and Sunday.
• Queens, ground floor of 126-01 Queens Boulevard, Kew Gardens, NY 11415: Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Living on Staten Island? Use White Street or Rikers; neither one closes. When the person sits in a courthouse holding pen for that day's hearing, the clerk of the courtroom part can also take the bail. 311 can give directions to the Rikers cashier.

• Credit cards and debit cards
• Cash in U.S. dollars that covers every cent
• Money orders of $1,000 or less each. You can buy them from Western Union, a private bank, the post office, Travelers Express or FedEx.
• A teller's or cashier's check that doesn't top the bail amount

Combining them is fine, but together they must equal the bail exactly. Write "New York City Department of Correction" as the payee on every check or money order. Leave personal checks at home, certified or not. A money order or check above $1,000, or one that leaves change due, will be refused. The whole payment happens in person, so carry every piece with you.

Instead of paying full bail, some families hire a licensed agent, who writes an insurance company bond and charges a premium for it. Insurance Law § 6804 sets the ceiling:

• Bonds up to $3,000: 10 percent
• Bigger bonds: 10 percent of the first $3,000, plus 8 percent of the slice up to $10,000, plus 6 percent of what is left
• Under $200: a $10 floor

Agents are licensed by the state through DFS, its Department of Financial Services. In its view the premium covers the job, apart from a few listed out-of-pocket items. Fair collateral looks like about a tenth of the bond. Get each payment in writing, signed by the agent. Your collateral must return within 45 days of the agent receiving exoneration papers. When the person ends up not released, or released with no money bail, the premium may be refunded within 14 days. Nonprofit charitable bail groups can post cash too, and each should give you its DFS certificate number in writing. Confirm a license with the DFS bail bond lookup, and send complaints with the DFS complaint form.

Your receipt covers one case only. Check for any of these:

• A separate case, maybe from a different borough, carrying its own bail
• A parole or probation violation hold
• An immigration detainer
• A U.S. Marshals hold on a federal matter
• Time left on a sentence already handed down
• Lag in the records: releases normally reach the lookup within 15 minutes of entry, so refresh it

Save yourself a wasted trip by asking 311 about other holds before you pay. Keep the hospital side separate in your mind. Even after custody ends, your loved one may stay a patient, and the care team decides that part.

Only qualifying felonies allow remand, which is jail without any bail (CPL 510.10(4)). The prosecutor also gets a say before anyone charged with a felony walks free (CPL 530.20(2)). These offices argue bail in each borough:

• Brooklyn: Kings County District Attorney, 350 Jay Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201; DA's Action Center 718-250-2340
• Manhattan: New York County District Attorney, 1 Hogan Place, New York, NY 10013, 212-335-9000
• Staten Island: Richmond County District Attorney, 130 Stuyvesant Place, Staten Island, NY 10301, 718-876-6300
• The Bronx: Bronx County District Attorney, 198 East 161st Street, Bronx, NY 10451, 718-590-2000
• Queens: Queens County District Attorney, 125-01 Queens Boulevard, Kew Gardens, NY 11415, 718-286-6000

Felony complaint cases also face a deadline. Without a preliminary hearing or an indictment vote inside 120 hours, the jailed person must be let out. Weekends and holidays push it to 144. The DA can stop that release by showing a compelling reason (CPL 180.80).

Your loved one's lawyer can request a fresh look. During the Criminal Court stage, one application may go to a Supreme Court judge of that borough, arguing that bail is excessive or the conditions too tight (CPL 530.30). The judge can cut the amount or let the person go. The DA speaks first on felonies.

1. Give the lawyer a truthful figure the family can actually gather.
2. Pull together papers that show roots here: a lease, recent pay, a school letter, proof you depend on each other.
3. Since the person is a patient, ask if medical records belong in the request.
4. Raise the Supervised Release Program as an option. The Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice takes questions through its online contact form.
5. Sit in the courtroom that day. Support in the seats can matter.

No one has to face the case, or the bail fight, without counsel. Being held in custody counts as a reason to qualify. Low income counts too. The cutoff sits at 250 percent of federal poverty guidelines. At arraignment the court normally appoints one of these offices:

• Queens: The Legal Aid Society, 120-46 Queens Boulevard, Kew Gardens, NY 11415, 718-286-2000; Queens Defenders, 118-21 Queens Blvd, Suite 212, Forest Hills, NY 11375, 844-783-3673
• Brooklyn: The Legal Aid Society, 111 Livingston Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201 (9th floor), 718-237-2000; Brooklyn Defender Services, 177 Livingston Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201 (7th floor), 718-254-0700
• The Bronx: The Legal Aid Society, 260 East 161st Street, Bronx, NY 10451, 718-579-3000; The Bronx Defenders, 360 East 161st Street, Bronx, NY 10451, 718-838-7878
• Staten Island: The Legal Aid Society, 60 Bay Street, Staten Island, NY 10301, 347-422-5333
• Manhattan: The Legal Aid Society, 49 Thomas Street, New York, NY 10013, 212-732-5000; New York County Defender Services, 100 William Street, New York, NY 10038 (20th floor), 212-803-5100; Neighborhood Defender Service, 317 Lenox Avenue, New York, NY 10027, 212-876-5500

Sometimes a conflict blocks every defender office. Then a private attorney comes off the Assigned Counsel Plan panel: 253 Broadway, Room 200, New York, NY 10007, 212-676-0066.

Misdemeanors finish in the Criminal Court where they began. Felonies climb to the borough's Supreme Court once a grand jury votes to indict. These are the upper courts, plus two neighborhood justice centers:

• Staten Island: Supreme Court for Richmond County, 26 Central Avenue, Staten Island, NY 10301; Criminal Term Office 718-675-8760
• Brooklyn: Supreme Court, Criminal Term, 320 Jay Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201, 347-296-1076; Red Hook Community Justice Center, 88-94 Visitation Place, Brooklyn, NY 11231, 718-923-8200
• Manhattan: Supreme Court, Criminal Term, 100 Centre Street, New York, NY 10013, 646-386-4000, with a second building at 111 Centre Street, New York, NY 10013, 646-386-4300; Midtown Community Justice Center, 314 West 54th Street, New York, NY 10019, 646-264-1330
• Queens: Supreme Court, Criminal Term, 125-01 Queens Boulevard, Kew Gardens, NY 11415; Record Room 718-298-1400
• The Bronx: Bronx County Supreme Court, Criminal, 265 East 161st Street, Bronx, NY 10451, 718-618-3100

A federal charge lands in a federal building instead. Arrests in Manhattan or the Bronx go to 500 Pearl Street, New York, NY 10007, 212-805-0136. Arrests in Brooklyn, Queens or Staten Island go to 225 Cadman Plaza East, Brooklyn, NY 11201, 718-613-2600.

Cash you post stays yours unless a judge orders it forfeited (CPL 520.15). Refunds are handled by the NYC Department of Finance (DOF), and nobody needs to apply. Expect the court's refund order roughly six weeks after the case wraps up. DOF's check follows inside two more weeks, for about eight weeks total.

• Unless the charges end in dismissal or acquittal, 3 percent is kept as a fee (General Municipal Law § 99-m).
• DOF answers only the payer, or a helper who brings the payer's notarized say-so.
• Keep handy the docket or indictment number, the defendant's name, the payment date, the borough and the dollar amount.
• Missing court with no valid excuse means forfeiture (CPL 540.10). Forfeited money can be sought back only within a year (CPL 540.30).

Reach DOF's Cash Bail Unit at 212-908-7619 on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Walk-ins go to 66 John Street, New York, NY 10038 (2nd floor), 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays, photo ID in hand.

Patients often arrive on the ward from Rikers, so their things may still sit on the island. Valuables from Rikers releases are held at the Samuel L. Perry Center, which runs day and night with no booking needed. Larger bags take a 311 appointment, booked within 30 days of release. Have either ID number ready when you call. You then get a three-day window, which opens at midday three working days after booking.

Not sure where the items ended up? Phone the Property Pick-up Area at 718-546-8811. Another adult can collect for your loved one. While still held, your loved one fills out DOC's Person in Custody Property Release Form naming you. After release, a notarized letter from them works instead. Money left on a jail account is covered on our inmate money page.

Federal cases run on federal rules, and a federal judge makes the call. The release fight, called a detention hearing, comes at the first court date unless either side asks for a few extra days (18 U.S.C. 3142(f)). The judge weighs the charge, how strong the evidence is, the person's past and family ties, and any risk to others (18 U.S.C. 3142(g)).

• Manhattan or Bronx arrest: U.S. District Court, 500 Pearl Street, New York, NY 10007, 212-805-0136. U.S. Marshals, 500 Pearl Street, Suite 400, New York, NY 10007, 646-563-9800.
• Brooklyn, Queens or Staten Island arrest: U.S. District Court, 225 Cadman Plaza East, Brooklyn, NY 11201, 718-613-2600. U.S. Marshals, 225 Cadman Plaza East, Room G20S, Brooklyn, NY 11201, 718-473-3000.
• MDC Brooklyn, 80 29th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11232, 718-840-4200, houses people in federal pretrial detention and people already sentenced.
• Once a sentence is imposed, use the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator.

Money paid to DOC for city bail does nothing about federal custody.

1. Immigration agents can lodge a detainer with DOC using Form I-247A. It asks DOC to hold the person for an ICE pickup.
2. Federal rules let that hold run up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
3. State law gives New York officers no power to arrest people for civil immigration matters, a court ruled in People ex rel. Wells v. DeMarco (2018). The state Attorney General treats detainers as voluntary and says to honor one only with a judge's warrant.
4. City rules go further. Administrative Code § 9-131 limits when DOC helps ICE. DOC "may be permitted to cooperate" when a person has a conviction the city lists as one of the "violent or serious crimes." Those lists come from Local Laws 58 and 59, both passed in 2014. A likely hit on a terror watch list is the other exception. Since Local Law 228 of 2017, no city time or money may go to federal immigration work, and each request gets logged.
5. Search the ICE Online Detainee Locator for anyone ICE takes, or phone ICE's field office for New York City, 26 Federal Plaza, 9th Floor, Suite 9-110, New York, NY 10278, 212-436-9315.

The ward exists for medical need. A sentence answers a different question: how long, and served where. Misdemeanor terms run no longer than 364 days and are served with DOC, which keeps sentenced people in several jails. A state prison term transfers the person to the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. That agency has ten business days to accept someone the city marks ready.

• Track a state prisoner on the DOCCS Incarcerated Lookup, or phone DOCCS at 518-457-5000 on business days.
• Browse all New York prisons on our state prisons page.

Rikers has held no 16- or 17-year-olds since Raise the Age moved them out of adult jails. When a court holds a teen, the Administration for Children's Services (ACS) keeps them in secure detention:

• Crossroads Juvenile Center, 17 Bristol Street, Brooklyn, NY 11212, 718-240-3800
• Horizon Juvenile Center, 560 Brook Avenue, Bronx, NY 10455, 718-292-0065

Pay a teen's bail to ACS. Teen felony cases (ages 16 and 17) begin in a special Supreme Court part called the Youth Part. Most teen misdemeanors go to probation intake instead. Family Court Act § 305.2 requires police to reach a parent fast.