That was my first question when getting booked.

  "Wait, it's $80 *cash*? What if I don't have cash on hand, can I pay by card?"
  "Nope - cash only."
  "...Do you have an ATM?"
  "Nope."

It's like a system designed to allow rich people to escape jail. My mind was blown. (Luckily, I was that rich asshole, as the day before I'd visited an ATM and pulled out more than I needed)

I would hope. In my experience, sometimes government offices can be specific about payments.

For example, my sister had to pay a speeding ticket and the courthouse only accepted cash and money orders, iirc.

It all depends on where you get arrested/whatever.

I guess it's obvious in retrospect but most of my panic here was that someone would need cash. If that was the case, and cards weren't accepted, it would be truly draconian.