Dear Friends,
Thank you all so much for taking the time to respond and give your perspective. It's so helpful.
I think these will be my next steps:
1) Talk to his lawyer and ask about the possibility of his getting halfway adequate medical care. AS has already requested an appt. with the doctor to request antidepressants and hopefully to discuss his suicidal ideation. (He was hospitalized for that once before and hasn't done it since -- didn't like that place too much!) It'll be a few days before he gets to see the dr.
2) I'll wait 'til his 1st court appearance (Oct 10*) before even considering bailing him out. maybe by that time he will have stabilized a bit. I think right now he is so desperate for relief from this depression that he would immediately seek out heroin if he had 1/2 a chance.
So I will do what I can to see that he gets proper medical treatment while in jail while he 'dries out' a bit more. This will also give me the chance to ask all those technical/legal questions about the court's view of his going to rehab before the case is finally heard.
* He has been told that his appearance on Oct 10 will just be his indictment and he will have to go back again and again before his case is ever fully resolved and he would be set free (without bail).