Referrals are open!

Application portal will remain open until Sept 10th.

Please note that starting July 1st, MBF will be shortening our referral window from 1st to 15th to 1st to 10th of each month.

We are shortening this window from 1st to 10th of the month so our small staff can work through an ever increasing amount of applications per month in a timely manner.

The below guidelines reflect our current financial and staff capacity and are subject to change. We love our people and we want to help if we can, so should your situation fall outside of these guidelines, please email information@massbailfund.org. Please read this page in entirety and then scroll all the way to the bottom to access the button link for the application.

The Massachusetts Bail Fund is an abolitionist and non-judgmental bail fund.

We do not factor charges, court history, and circumstance in posting bail.

    • Billerica House of Corrections

    • MCI Framingham

    • Middleton House of Corrections 

    • Suffolk County House of Corrections

    • Nashua Street Jail

    • Worcester County House of Corrections

    • Ludlow House of Corrections

    • Western Mass Regional Women's Correctional Center

    • We DO NOT post bail anywhere else

    • We will post up to $1000 per person!

    • Our funds are rotating, which means if an individual's case resolves the funds returned become available for them again upto $1000.

    • If we have posted bail for someone and their bail gets forfeited - we are unable to post bail again for them for a few years.

  • Beginning Jan 2026, MBF is no longer able to post bail for community members with active warrants that would result in their inability to be released after bail posting. This is due to a number of reasons including the most effective use of our limited resources as well as outcomes for the community member. If the warrants were to be removed and the community member releasable, MBF will gladly consider posting bail for them. If in the process of bailing, we find out that a community member has a warrant, we will be pulling them from our bail list.

    • Referrals are generally accepted from court-appointed counsel. Please indicate that you are an “attorney on the application”

    • If you are a community member and your loved one is held on a bail that we can post, we are committed to helping.  Please identify yourself as “community member” on the application so we can be sure to follow up in the right manner and/or email us at information@massbailfund.org with the following info: name of person, court where charged, amount of bail and facility where held.

    • Please fill out all fields within the application and please write N/A in any fields that you do not have information.

  • At this time, we are currently UNABLE post on GPS prior bails that need to be done in court unless they are in Suffolk County. If you are asking for bail help for someone who has a GPS condition, that condition must read "24 hours after release".

    HOWEVER, At Billerica House of Corrections, Western Mass Regional Women's Correctional Center, Ludlow House of Corrections and MCI Framingham WE ARE ABLE to post bail for those with GPS conditions and the jail will transport them to court for GPS fitting the next morning. 

  • Massachusetts Bail Fund has a partnership with Believers Bail Out - a collective of Muslim abolitionists that pays bail through Zakat. Zakat, one of the central tenets of Islam, is an annual tax on wealth. The Qur’an (9:60) specifies eight uses for zakat, including helping the poor and the needy and for the freeing of slaves or captives. People being held in pretrial incarceration because they can’t afford bail qualify for zakat. By paying their bail and freeing them to address the charges against them, Believers Bail Out restores the presumption of innocence. If your client is Muslim and connects with the mission of Believers Bail Out, they might qualify for bail help beyond the $1000 that Mass Bail Fund can enable. Please reach out to rachel@massbailfund.org to enquire about your client.

Transportation

Because of COVID-19 safety concerns, MBF can not guarantee arranging transportation for people who are released once bail is posted.  There are some options for transportation from the jails outlined below.  

  • The staff at Middleton HOC will provide transportation to the police precinct that the person was arrested in. Family members can also pick up their loved ones at the HOC, which is preferred.

  • If there is someone who can provide transportation, please provide contact information on the form and we will coordinate with them.  If there is no transportation plan, the person will be released to the street. The closets train is the Andrew red line station, 17 minute walk from the jail but a straight walk down south hampton st. 

    Buses: 

    • 1 (Washington St @ Massachusetts Ave to Nubian Square, 15 minute walk) 

    • 15 (Washington St @ Massachusetts Ave to Mattapan via Nubian & Fields Corner, 15 minute walk)

    • 8 (Mass Ave @ Albany St to Harbor Point Kenmore Station, 9 minute walk, last 11:45 PM), 

    • SL4 (Washington St @ Massachusetts Ave to Nubian, 15 minute walk, last 12:49 AM)

  • If there is someone who can provide transportation, please provide contact information on the form and we will coordinate with them.  If there is no transportation plan, the person will be released to the street. There is the green line stop to the left coming out of the jail's front entrance, called Park Science/West end. The orange line is a less than five minute walk to the right out the front door down Nashua St and on the left where TD Garden building is.

  • This jail does not provide transportation. If there is someone who can provide transportation, please provide contact information on the form and we will coordinate with them.  If there is no transportation plan, MBF staff and volunteers can sometimes provide transportation from the HOC.

  • This jail does not offer rides to people being released during the 4:30 pm bail call. If the person has a ride, that is most preferred and should be noted in the application. If they do not, we will do our best to coordinate transportation.

  • This jail does offer transportation  to people being released during the 7 pm bail call. The jail will provide people being released  a one way train ticket and a ride to the train station. If the person has a prearranged ride, that is most preferred and should be noted in the application.

  • This jail does not offer rides to people being released during the 4:30 pm bail call. If the person has a ride, that is most preferred and should be noted in the application. There is a bus that comes to the jail to pick people up who are released before 6:30 pm from the 4:30 pm bail call. If the person being released does not have a ride and does not make the bus, MBF staff and volunteers can sometimes provide a ride.

  • This prison does not offer rides to people being released during the 5 pm bail call. If the person has a ride, that is most preferred and should be noted in the application. MBF staff and volunteers in some cases may be able to provide a ride.

We rely on attorneys who refer clients to us to let us know the essential information we need in order to post and pickup bail efficiently.  

We expect attorneys to read the above requirements and to let us know the following information when cases close:

  1. Date of Case Closure - what date does/did the case resolve?

  2. Case Disposition - for example: Dismissal, or Guilty-Probation for 6 months

  3. Attorney Fee Status- Bails are not available for pickup until the attorney fee is fulfilled in some way.

The need for our assistance is bottomless.  The Massachusetts Bail Fund is dedicated to helping as many people as we can, and to do this we rely on attorneys to let us know case information as quickly as possible.