When someone is released from the Sonoma County Jail on bail bonds, prosecutors have 15 days to file formal charges against the defendant.  If they don't, the bail bonds expire.

This week, judges say they are going to start observing these strict time limits.  If the District Attorney's office files charges after that time frame, the court says they'll require a new bond be posted.

Opponents of this decision call it an essential doubling of the county bail schedule, and point out that if families can't afford to pay twice, the defendant will be stuck behind bars until their case is decided.  This could easily take months, they said.

Bail company owners say they are worried that people may no longer see hiring a bondsman as being affordable.  They say they are already looking into was to make a second bail bond more affordable; court officials say that some defendants may be eligible for an own recognizance release.

A new pretrial release program is about to come online, they said, and the amount of risk a defendant poses to the community will be evaluated.  If that risk is low, some will be eligible to be released by a judge after they are arraigned.  Those who do hire a bondsman to get out before that first court date will not be evaluated, because they will already be out of custody.

Defense attorneys are worried that the circle of bail bonds could be ongoing.   They worry that the 15-day loop will continuously repeat itself which will not only be expensive for their clients, it could force them back into jail because they don't have the means to keep paying.

Read the full story here:  New county bail policy could get costly