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Determining your parole eligibility
Produced by the
Justice for Veterans Campaign
1405 Montopolis Dr. Austin, Texas 78741
Disclaimer: This information is for general information purposes only. It is not legal advice. If at all
possible, always talk to a lawyer before filing a lawsuit.
Parole “eligibility” is the first time the Parole Board will consider your release. It does not mean
your release is guaranteed. It is just your first chance to be paroled. Whether or not you are
actually released is completely up to the Parole Board (unless you are eligible for mandatory
supervision, discussed below). Your first parole eligibility date is set by four things:
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Whether or not your crime falls under the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure § 42.12
Sec. 3(g). Many people refer to these simply as “3(g)” or “aggravated” offenses;
The date of your offense;
What good-time earning category you are in;
Whether or not you have lost good time since you arrived in TDCJ.
3(g) offenses and parole eligibility
First review: If you were convicted of a “3(g)” offense, your first review date is pretty simple to
find out. You must serve a certain percentage of your sentence. Your first eligibility date
depends on the length of your sentence and when you committed your crime. There is no way to
move the first review date up or back with good time.
Date of offense: This brings us to the date of your offense. The date you committed your crime is
important because the Texas Legislature is always changing the law that says how much time
prisoners convicted of 3(g) offenses must serve. The law that applies to you is the one that was
in place when you committed you were convicted. The chart below shows how that has changed,
moving from 1/3 to 1/4, back to 1/3, and since 2007, to 1/2.
Good time: How much “good time” you have; whether you have lost good time; what good-time
earning category you are in – none of these have any impact on prisoners convicted of 3(g)
offenses. Good time means absolutely nothing to them. They can be Line III, draw no good time
whatsoever, and still see parole on a given date. Since they have no “short way,” and must either
parole or discharge their entire sentence, the only impact good-time earning categories have on
them is to limit their jobs, education, and housing in prison.
Non 3(g) offenses and parole eligibility
First review: Texas Government Code § 508.145 says prisoners not convicted of 3(g) offenses
are eligible for release on parole when their “actual calendar time served plus good conduct time
equals one-fourth of the sentence imposed or 15 years, whichever is less.”
In other words, if you are serving a sentence of under 60 years and do not have a 3(g) offense,
and you have not lost good time because of major disciplinary infractions, you will serve
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approximately 1/8 of your sentence before your first parole review. For example, if you have a
20-year sentence (240 months), lose no good time, and you are earning the maximum good time
– 30 days for every 30 days you serve – you will be eligible for parole in 30 months (two and
one-half years).
Date of offense: This doesn’t matter for initial parole eligibility. Any person convicted of a non3(g) offense prior to Sept. 1, 1987, had to do 1/3 of his sentence and no more than 20 yearss,
before parole eligibility. All of those prisoners have already become eligible and are now eligible
for parole. The date of your offense only matters for release on mandatory supervision, which is
different.*.
Good time: For someone serving a 20 year sentence, if you avoid major cases, you will be
eligible after serving 1/8 (or 2.5 years) of your sentence because your flat time plus your good
time will total 1/4 of your sentence. But if you pick up a major case and are dropped into and
stay in Line Class III, drawing no good time, you will do 1/4 of your sentence in flat time before
your first review date. In other words, if you are doing a 20-year sentence, (240 months) you
will serve five years before becoming eligible for parole if you are not earning good time. So, on
the same 20-year sentence, you can serve anywhere between two-and-a-half to five years before
becoming eligible, all because of your good time.
Losing good time, and your class status (and the ability to earn good time), are important to
determine when you can see parole for non-3(g) prisoners. Basically, you are at the mercy of the
TDCJ to promote you, grant you good time, and then determine your first parole review date.
Following the rules and staying out of trouble is the best way to make sure you are eligible for
parole as quickly as possible.
Parole Eligibility Chart
Offense Date
Prior to 09/01/77,
Between 09/01/77 and 08/31/87
Offense Type
all prisoners were eligible for parole when calendar time plus good time
equaled 1/3 of their sentence. ..
Aggravated Kidnapping
All other offenses
Aggravated Robbery
Maximum – 20 years before parole
Aggravated Sexual Assault
eligible
Capital Murder
1/3 flat time plus good time
Or any offense with an affirmative
finding of a Deadly Weapon,
To be parole eligible, you must serve:
Minimum – 2 years
Maximum – 20 years
1/3 calendar time (without good time)
Between 09/01/87 and 08/31/89
3(g) offense, which include
Aggravated Kidnapping
Aggravated Robbery
Aggravated Sexual Assault
Any offense with Affirmative finding
of Deadly Weapon
Capital Murder
All other offenses
Maximum – 15 years before parole
eligible
1/4 flat time plus good time
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To be parole eligible, you must serve:
Minimum – 2 years
Maximum – 15 years
1/4 calendar time (without good time)
Between 09/01/89 and 08/31/93
Capital Offense with a Life Sentence
To be parole eligible, you must serve:
35 flat years (without good time)
All other offenses
Maximum – 15 years before parole
eligible
1/4 flat time plus good time
For all of the 3(g) Offenses listed
above, to be parole eligible, you must
serve:
Minimum – 2 years
Maximum – 15 years
1/4 flat time (without good time)
Between 09/01/93 and 08/31/95
Capital Offense with a Life Sentence
To be parole eligible, you must serve:
40 flat years (without good time)
All other offenses
Maximum – 15 years before parole
eligible
1/4 flat time (plus good time)
For all the 3g Offenses listed above,
including the following:
Indecency w/Child (Sexual Contact)2nd
Degree
Murder, 1st Degree
To be parole eligible, you must serve:
Minimum – 2 years
Maximum – 30 years
1/2 calendar time (without good time)
Between 09/01/95 and 08/31/97
Capital Offense with a Life Sentence
To be parole eligible, you must serve:
40 flat years without good time
All other offenses
Maximum – 15 years before parole
eligible
¼ flat time plus good time
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Aggravated Kidnapping (with intent to
violate or abuse the victim sexually
Aggravated Sexual Assault
Burglary of Habitation with Intent to
commit any of the following sexual
offenses
Aggravated Sexual Assault
Indecency w/Child
Possession or Promotion of Child
Pornography
Prohibited Sexual Conduct
Sexual Assault
Sexual Performance by a Child
AND you are serving a life sentence
AND you have a prior conviction for
any of the above-listed offenses
To be parole eligible, you must serve:
35 flat years without good time
For all the 3g Offenses listed above,
including the following:
Sexual Assault (of a Child)
To be parole eligible, you must serve:
Minimum – 2 years
Maximum – 30 year
½ flat years without good time
Between 09/01/97 and
08/31/2005
Capital Felony
To be parole eligible, you must serve:
40 years flat time (without good time)
For the above listed offenses,
AND you are serving a life sentence
AND you have a prior conviction for
any of the above-listed offenses
You must serve
35 flat years (without good time)
All other offenses
Maximum – 15 years before parole
eligible
1/4 flat time plus good time
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For all the 3g Offenses listed above,
including the following:
Indecency w/Child (Sexual Contact)2nd
Degree
Sexual Assault, *all subsections
To be parole eligible, you must serve:
Minimum – 2 years
Maximum – 30 years
1/2 flat time (without good time)
Between 09/01/2005 and
08/31/2007
Capital Felony
You are ineligible for parole
For the above listed offenses,
including the following:
Burglary of Habitation with Intent to
Commit any of the following listed
sexual offenses:
Obscenity (images of child under the
age of 18)
AND you are serving a life sentence
AND you have a prior conviction for
any of the above-listed offenses
You must serve
35 flat years without good time
All other offenses
Maximum – 15 years before parole
eligible
1/4 flat time plus good time
For all the 3(g) Offenses listed above
To be parole eligible, you must serve:
Minimum – 2 years
Maximum – 30 years
1/2 flat time (without good time)
From 09/01/2007 to present
OF
Capital Felony
You are ineligible for parole
For any of the offenses listed above
AND you are serving a life sentence
AND you have a prior conviction for
any of the above-listed offenses
To be parole eligible, you must serve:
35 flat years (without good time)
For all the 3g Offenses listed above,
including the following:
Injury to a Child or Elderly or
Disabled Individual, 1st Degree (applies only to Child victim 14or
younger) Murder, 1st Degree
Sexual Performance by a Child -43.25,
All other offenses
Maximum – 15 years before parole
eligible
1/4 flat time plus good time
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all subsections
To be parole eligible, you must serve:
Minimum – 2 years
Maximum – 30 years
1/2 flat time without good time
* Mandatory supervision was created in September of 1977. Prior to that, all prisoners had to be
released, without any supervision whatsoever, when their earned good time plus served flat time
added up to their total sentence. Between 1977 and 1987, all prisoners were still released when
their flat time plus their good time added up to their sentence, but they were subject to
supervision and had to comply with whatever restrictions the Board of Pardons and Paroles
applied to them. For prisoners convicted after September 1, 1987, Texas began denying release
on mandatory supervision to prisoners convicted of 3(g) and certain other offenses. What this
essentially did was nullify any positive effect of good time for these prisoners – they either made
parole or discharged their entire sentences. That nullification was extended to all prisoners after
September 1, 1996, by the creation of Discretionary Mandatory Supervision, which gave the
parole board the right to deny release on mandatory supervision to any prisoner if the board
thought that prisoner posed a “continuing threat” to the public.
(Source: Parole in Texas – Answers to common questions. Published by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and
the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Parole Division, 2012. Accessed at
http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/bpp/publications/publications.html)