Paige Massey Texas Prison release Parole Attorney

Paroles

A parole is not an act of clemency. It is a conditioned release from prison for the offender to serve the remaining amount of his term outside of prison according to a set of rules known as his conditions for parole release. In order to be “paroled” a person must first reach his parole eligibility date and then be approved by the appropriate panel, most of the time consists of 3 Board Members and Commissioners, and a simple majority decides the case. Certain cases, known as SB 45 cases, must be voted on by all 7 of the Board Members of the Parole Board, and require a 2/3’s vote in favor of release or release is denied. In those cases when it becomes mathematically impossible to reach 2/3s of 7 or 5 votes in favor of release, the file stops. Parole eligibility is determined by the date on which the offense occurred. Texas has a patchwork of laws due to the changing of statutes almost every time the Legislature meets – which is every two years. Rather than try to explain how all these pieces fit together, I will give you a reference to the complex nature of these laws and give you the general rule which will apply in most cases.

Some parole cases are referred to as “3(g)” cases, which comes from the part of the Code of Criminal Procedure which lists them (Sec. 42.18 paragraph 3 (g)). Most parole statutes have been moved to the Texas Goverment Code. These so-called 3 g cases require the inmate to serve one half of his sentence without any consideration of good time or work time, or a minimum of two years. This is also known as serving flat time only. A 25 year sentence for aggravated robbery would require an inmate serve 12 ½ years before he can even be considered for parole. And I should add here that being eligible does not mean “will be approved”. (Not too long ago 3 g cases required a flat 1/3 time served; then this was changed to a flat 1/4 time served.) Cases with sentences over 60 years through life are treated as 60 years. A 75 year sentence or a life sentence for a 3 g case would require 20 flat years. A life sentence for capital murder requires serving a flat 40 years before a person becomes eligible for parole. For non 3 g cases, an inmate must have time credits for 25% of his sentence which includes his earned good time and work time. A 10 year sentence for credit card abuse would require 2 ½ years credit, which would take less than a year and a half if an inmate behaved himself and went to work every day.

I don’t feel that we should get any further into eligibility. If you feel that it is being calculated in error, the matter can be taken up with the time credit people in TDC-Classifications and if they are wrong, they will correct their mistake. They are rarely wrong. On those very rare occasions when they are wrong, it is usually because the county of conviction has messed something up.