This paper offers a synthesis of several studies we recently conducted on the judicial determination of interim release or detention. It aims to show the social organization of these judicial determinations, notably how the rationales underlying them are embedded in social and professional requirements. Indeed, in a context controlled by law, policy and media, a precaution principle working together with a social defense approach leads to an escalation of the conditions for bail. Socially disadvantaged people hardly could manage these conditions, meaning that they could more likely receive pretrial detention. Such social profiling, as emerging, can be understood as an effect of practices in context.