Parole Eligibility on Aggravated Offenses in Texas

If you are in prison for an aggravated offense when are eligible for parole?

First, we need to talk about aggravated offenses.

What’s an aggravated offense for parole purposes?

1. 42A.054(a) offenses, we used to call these 3G offenses.
2. Deadly Weapon Cases
3. Organized Criminal Activity
4. Direct Criminal Street Gang

What are the parole eligibility rules for aggravated offenses in Texas?

To the Government Code 548.145(d)-

An inmate is not eligible for release on parole until the inmate’s actual calendar time served, without consideration of good conduct time, equals one-half of the sentence or 30 calendar years, whichever is less, but in no event is the inmate eligible for release on parole in less than two calendar years.

What does that mean? Basically, you half to do half your sentence, or 30 years, whatever is less, before you are eligible for parole, but never less than 2 years. So if you get a 10-year sentence, you half to serve 5 before having a parole hearing. If you get a 3-year sentence, you have to do 2, because it’s never less than 2 calendar year.