The days and weeks leading up to a release date are filled with practical questions that the facility is often not equipped to answer clearly. What time will they be released? What do they leave with? What happens if the release date changes? What is the difference between a projected release date and an actual release date? This section covers everything families need to know about the release process including how release dates are calculated, what good time and earned time credits do to the projected date, what an inmate receives upon release, how transportation from the facility works, what the first 24 hours after release typically look like, and how to prepare as a family for the moment the door opens. The guidance here comes from people who have walked out those doors and from families who were waiting on the other side. See also our sections on Halfway House, Parole and Probation, and Re-entry and Rehabilitation.
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Subject: Release questions
In federal prison and most of the state prison systems, the inmates are given their good time credit upfront. This is normally 15% off the sentence. So, if your inmate has 24 months, the good time drops that down to 20.4 months. There are no other ways to carve time off your sentence.
Subject: Release questions
We are very reliable as get our data from the Member created inmate profiles and the public information postings on government websites. Very few of them post the release date and offer it when it's a public record. The Department of Corrections or Bureau of Prisons keeps a record of those. some have the release dates and others don't. Sometimes you have to dig further by contacting the Clerk of the Court or US District Court to get the actual sentencing...
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Both are returned to you upon full release, but how that money comes back to you matters more than most people expect going out the door.
The facility typically returns remaining funds on a debit card issued at release rather than cash. That sounds convenient until you read the fine print. Most of these release debit cards carry fees that chip away at the balance every time the card is used, sometimes per transaction, sometimes as a monthly maintenance fee, sometimes...
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The First Step Act is one of the most significant federal criminal justice reform laws in decades, and its impact is real and ongoing. Understanding who it affects and how to find out if your person qualifies is worth knowing in detail.
The law operates on several tracks simultaneously. The most immediate impact came through retroactive application of the 2010 Fair Sentencing Act, which addressed the longstanding disparity between crack cocaine and powder cocaine sentencing. Under previous law, it took 100...
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call the facility and ask if they are still there
Subject: Release questions
Colwell PDC is for parole and probation violators. It is a low-security probation detention center. The inmates here are not new to the Georgia DOC and have used up what leniency they were afforded when they got re-sentenced. This is a facility where boredom is the prevailing theme.
There is no good time and no early release.
Subject: Release questions
The release process from an Arizona state prison involves several steps, and where you will be living is one of the first things that gets verified before the door opens.
For most people releasing from Arizona Department of Corrections facilities including those in the Tucson complex, there is a period of supervised release following the prison term. Arizona calls this community supervision, and it functions similarly to parole in other states. The conditions of that supervision are set based on the...
Read moreSubject: Release questions
This is not totally up to the judge. The prosecutor will have to sign off and then recommend that the charges be dropped which would effectively release your inmate. This is not going to be a fast process so be patient
Subject: Release questions
Probably not, and the question of why someone would lie to stay in prison an extra month is worth sitting with before jumping to conclusions.
Release dates in California's system are not always fixed and can shift for several reasons. Good time credit adjustments, program completions, or administrative recalculations can move a date in either direction by days or weeks. The CDCR offender locator reflects a calculated date based on the current record, but that calculation can change as credits are...
Read moreSubject: Release questions
Most prison state systems and the federal (BOP) facilities give the inmates their best possible release date which includes good time. That is 15% off the sentence calculation. You cannot get more than 15% without snitching on someone. The good time credit is applied at the beginning to have something to hold over the inmate in their compliance with the rules. All you can do is lose what they've already given you.
Subject: Release questions
The discrepancy you are seeing is almost certainly a data entry issue rather than anything reflecting his actual legal situation.
InmateAid's inmate profiles are populated in part by information submitted by members of the community. When someone adds an inmate to the database, they enter what information they have at the time, and that information is not always accurate or up to date. A well-meaning person may have entered an incorrect release date, a date from a previous sentence, or simply...
Read moreSubject: Release questions
When two sources conflict on something as important as a release date, go with the government source every time.
The official state department of corrections or Bureau of Prisons inmate locator pulls directly from the system that actually manages the sentence calculation. That database reflects the official record, including good time credits, any adjustments that have been made, and the current projected release date as calculated by the corrections department itself. It is the most authoritative source available to the public.
InmateAid's...
Read moreSubject: Release questions
We're figuring the sentence is about 35 months, and normally they get an automatic 15% good time credit. Therefore, 85% of that would be 29.75 months. Guessing the release date somewhere at March 2021
Subject: Release questions
Generally yes, particularly if there is a supervised release component to the sentence.
When parole or probation is part of the release, the supervising jurisdiction is almost always the county where the conviction occurred. That is where the case originated, where the judge issued the sentence, and where the probation or parole office has jurisdiction over the case. Your inmate will typically be required to report to that county's supervision office and establish themselves there as the starting point of their...
Read moreSubject: Release questions
Release dates are not provided to the general public at all facilities. You can check Vinelink, or call the institution and speak with your inmate's counselor. They surely know the out-dates
