In this case, you will have to ask a police officer ICLY(in character) about how much your bail is/how long you are in prison. You can only pay your bail if the allotted time has passed, and you are unable to pay for yourself. So you would have to have a friend pay for your character's bail.
And yes, you have to chance characters since technically that character was sent to jail and will be unable to leave. So changing characters is a must.