What is Appear
For jail and detention facility staff. How bail bond submissions reach your desk on Appear, and how your facility's PIN protects every decision.
Appear by Vonda is where your facility receives bail bond submissions from agencies that use Vonda. Instead of a fax to collate, your desk gets one email with one secure link. The link opens a page with everything about the submission: the defendant, every bond the agency posted for them, each bond's documents, and the agency and agent behind it. From that page your staff accept the submission, reject it, or record the release.
These guides are written for facility staff. If you work at a bail bond agency, see the Vonda docs instead.
What it costs and what you need
- Appear is free for jails and detention facilities.
- There are no accounts, logins or installs. Anyone at your desk can open a submission from its link in a web browser, on a desk computer or a phone.
- Your facility's PIN is the only thing your staff need to act on a submission.
How a submission reaches you
When an agency sends a submission to your facility by email, your desk gets a message with the subject Bond documents, followed by the defendant's name. It lists the bond numbers and the agency that submitted them, and has a Review on Appear button that opens the submission. There are no attachments: the documents are on the page.
Some agencies may give you the link another way, for example when they deliver paperwork in person.
One submission is one defendant at your facility. If the agency posted several bonds for that person, all of them are on the same page, and you accept, reject or release the submission as a whole.
Your facility PIN
Anyone with the link can read the submission, but every decision on it takes your facility's 6-digit PIN:
- Accepting the submission.
- Rejecting it, with a reason.
- Marking the defendant released.
Vonda issues the PIN to your facility. Agencies never see it. Share it with the staff who make release decisions. After several wrong entries in a row, the page makes you wait before trying again. If you need your PIN changed, contact Vonda through the contact form on the Appear page.
A record everyone can trust
- Every act is recorded on the submission with a timestamp and your facility's name, never a personal name. Whoever picks it up on the next shift can see straight away whether it's already been handled.
- The page is the source of truth. If an agency withdraws a submission, the page says so right away. If the page shows a status that doesn't match the paperwork in front of you, don't release the defendant on it.
- Agencies can't restyle it. Appear always looks the same, whichever agency sent the submission, so your staff learn to recognize the real page.
The usual flow
- The agency sends the submission. The page shows Valid.
- You check it against the paperwork and accept it, or reject it with a reason.
- When the defendant walks out, you mark them released. The agency and the defendant's co-signers are notified at once.