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
No. Parole is an option that is determined at sentencing by the judge. If parole is available to you, you would likely get a chance to reduce your time served and not have to do the entire bid inside. Not all offenders are given parole as an option in their Judgement and Commitment order. If you don't have that option you will do 85% of your sentence and then get released. You will immediately report to the Probation Office and...
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If he is not in the state prison system or the federal BOP, there are no online postings for release dates. Even some states still do not have the release dates posted on their website. We would simply ask your inmate, because every inmate knows the exact day they are leaving.
Subject: Release questions
There are a few ways to track down a release date, but the situation you are describing raises a question worth sitting with first.
Most state and federal prison systems have an inmate locator on their department of corrections website that displays basic information including projected release dates. That is your fastest starting point. Search the DOC website for whatever state he is in, plug in his name or inmate number, and see what comes up. Many of those systems display...
Read moreSubject: Release questions
There is very little likelihood that Prop 57 will help. There is not enough time for processing the petition to affect them as they are out in three weeks.
Subject: Release questions
It is our understanding that the early release programs are not qualifying most violent offenders.The law is new and there are no cases to point to, but they define the "violent offender" in the language. An inmate will have to petition the court for a resentencing to even get considered for an early release. The sheer risk of having a violent crime happen by someone released on their watch is not going to get much of a chance with this law. You can always...
Read moreSubject: Release questions
There are legitimate programs that allow something close to this, but the specific scenario you are describing raises a separate question worth addressing directly.
Work release is the most common version of this arrangement. Inmates on work release leave the facility during the day for employment and return at night. It is a real program and it exists at many facilities as a transition step close to the end of a sentence. Weekend-only sentences are also possible in certain low-level cases...
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No, there are no cells in any federal prison camp. The inmates all live in an army-style barracks. It is all open in one big room with about 100 bunk beds lined up in rows separated by lockers. The bathrooms, showers and laundry rooms are attached.
Subject: Release questions
Sixty days from November 1 puts him at December 31. New Year's Eve.
Start planning now. Sixty days moves faster than it feels like it will, and having things in place before he walks out makes a real difference. Housing, a form of ID, a little money, and a plan for the first few days are the basics that matter most. California will give him some gate money and a bus ticket, but the rest is on you both to prepare.
December...
Read moreSubject: Release questions
The home he is going to be living in will have to be visited and approved by the agency overseeing his probation. The home cannot have anything visible, or with a cursory search, items that might be in contravention with his release. This could include firearms, alcohol, drugs or pornography - or proximity to a school. Our advice is to speak with someone at their offices and get the rules and regulations for offender's re-entry so that you're not surprised...
Read moreSubject: Release questions
El CDCR no contiene una lista de las fechas de lanzamiento en su sitio web. Usted puede llamar al consejero en la planta, tienen el recluso's fecha de lanzamiento. Y, por supuesto, el recluso sabe exactamente cuando van a ser liberados
Subject: Release questions
Personal recognizance, commonly called PR or OR release, is when a judge releases someone from custody without requiring them to post bail. Instead of paying money to secure release, the person signs a written promise to appear at all future court dates. It is essentially the court saying it trusts this person to show up without a financial incentive to do so.
Whether someone qualifies for PR release depends on several factors the judge evaluates at the bail hearing, typically held...
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It starts with his original Judgement and Commitment Order received when he was sentenced. If parole is an option, the terms would be found in this document. If he is indeed set for a Parole Hearing in November, he will have been given a package of information, maybe requiring some written responses to questions. He would meet a Board that would assess whether they agree to let him back into society. They weigh the risks to the community with the...
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Shock incarceration, which is what New York's shock camp program is, exists specifically to get eligible inmates home faster than a standard sentence would. That is the whole point of the program, and if your boyfriend was accepted into it, that is genuinely good news.
The standard New York shock program runs six months of intensive military-style programming inside the facility. It is physically and mentally demanding by design, covering drill, physical training, discipline, substance abuse treatment, and life skills. Inmates...
Read moreSubject: Release questions
If your husband is still in custody with a November release date after telling you charges were dropped, the most likely explanation is that the charges were not actually dropped, or that only some of them were reduced or dismissed while others remain active.
Inmates sometimes misunderstand or misrepresent what happened in court, occasionally intentionally to avoid a difficult conversation, and sometimes genuinely because legal proceedings are confusing and attorneys do not always explain outcomes clearly. A charge being reduced to...
Read moreSubject: Release questions
Eighty-five percent of 16 months is 13.6 months. If he went in on July 19, our guestimate is that October 6, 2017 would be close to his release date
