California Code, Penal Code - PEN § 1295

(a) The defendant, or any other person, at any time after an order admitting defendant to bail or after the arrest and booking of a defendant for having committed a misdemeanor, instead of giving bail may deposit, with the clerk of the court in which the defendant is held to answer or notified to appear for arraignment, the sum mentioned in the order or, if no order, in the schedule of bail previously fixed by the judges of the court, and, upon delivering to the officer in whose custody defendant is a certificate of the deposit, the defendant must be discharged from custody.

(b) Where more than one deposit is made with respect to any charge in any accusatory pleading based upon the acts supporting the original charge as a result of which an earlier deposit was made, the defendant shall receive credit in the amount of any earlier deposit.

(c) The clerk of the court shall not accept a general assistance check for this deposit or any part thereof.