How Missouri handles a case
What happens after an arrest anywhere in Missouri: who decides release first, how fast a person sees a judge, which courts hear the case, and who runs the offices around them. Every county in the state works under these rules.
From arrest to court
- Who decides release first
For state charges, a circuit or associate circuit judge usually sets release conditions on the warrant issued after the prosecutor files, then reviews them at the initial appearance. For city ordinance arrests, jails apply municipal bond schedules. Whether jails use money schedules for state charges is not confirmed.
RSMo 544.170Mo. Sup. Ct. R. 22.08Mo. Sup. Ct. R. 33.01- Time to see a judge
A person arrested without a warrant must be released within 24 hours unless charged and held on a warrant. Once held on a felony warrant, the person must see a judge within 48 hours, not counting weekends and holidays. A person still held gets a detention hearing within seven business days.
RSMo 544.170Mo. Sup. Ct. R. 22.07Mo. Sup. Ct. R. 33.05- Money bail
Missouri courts may set money bail. Since 2019 the court rule presumes release on recognizance and tells judges to consider non-money conditions first and set money only if those won't do.
Mo. Sup. Ct. R. 33.01- Pretrial risk assessment
Missouri has no statewide pretrial risk tool. Some circuits, such as the City of St. Louis, run pretrial offices that interview people after arrest and report to the judge.
22nd Judicial Circuit (City of St. Louis), Pretrial Services- Courts
The circuit court tries felonies and state misdemeanors; associate circuit judges within it often hear misdemeanors and early felony stages. City ordinance violations go to municipal divisions of the circuit court, run by each city.
RSMo 479.010RSMo 479.020- Judges and magistrates
Circuit judges serve six-year terms and associate circuit judges four-year terms. In most circuits voters elect them in partisan elections. In the City of St. Louis, Jackson County, and circuits whose voters adopted the plan, the governor appoints from three nominees picked by a nonpartisan commission, and judges then face retention votes.
Mo. Const. art. V, sec. 19Mo. Const. art. V, sec. 25(a)Mo. Const. art. V, sec. 25(b)RSMo 479.020- Prosecutors
Each county elects a prosecuting attorney to a four-year term. The City of St. Louis elects a circuit attorney with the same duties.
RSMo 56.010RSMo 56.430- Public defense
The Missouri State Public Defender, a statewide office in the judicial branch, represents people who can't afford a lawyer in state criminal cases.
RSMo 600.019Missouri State Public Defender- Jails
The county sheriff runs the jail in most counties. The City of St. Louis runs its own jail through its Division of Corrections, and state law lets some large counties move jail control from the sheriff to the county.
RSMo 221.020City of St. Louis, Division of Corrections
Read from the statutes and court rules cited, 2026-09-30. Some of this is medium confidence and still being checked. Which circuits besides St. Louis City and Jackson County use the nonpartisan plan (St. Louis County, Clay, Platte, Greene are commonly listed) was not confirmed from a primary list. Jail bond schedules for state charges and offense limits on them were not confirmed. That St. Louis County and Jackson County jails are run by county corrections departments rather than the sheriff is from general knowledge. Associate circuit judges' lawyer requirement is set by statute, not read.