Earned Time And Release
ORC 2967.194 — credit for programs, and when release comes
Time spent locked up before the prison term began counts toward it. The department of rehabilitation and correction reduces the prison term by the total number of days the prisoner was confined for any reason arising out of the offense, including confinement in lieu of bail while awaiting trial, confinement for an examination of competence to stand trial or sanity, confinement while awaiting transportation to the prison, and confinement in a juvenile facility.
Days of credit for programs. A person in a state correctional institution may provisionally earn one day or five days of credit toward the stated prison term for each completed month of productive participation in an education program, vocational training, employment in prison industries, treatment for substance abuse, or another constructive program the department has set standards for. It is one day where the stated term includes a term for a sexually oriented offense committed before September 30, 2011, and five days otherwise.
- Successfully completing a second program or activity can add up to five days more. The first one, and any after the second, add none.
- Completing a high school diploma or equivalence, a therapeutic drug community program, all phases of the department's intensive outpatient drug treatment program, a career technical vocational school program, a college certification program, or another constructive program the department has set standards for earns ninety days of credit or a ten per cent reduction of the stated term, whichever is less, for each one. This does not apply to a person serving a mandatory prison term or a term for an offense of violence or a sexually oriented offense.
- Except for a person the completion rule above describes, the days provisionally earned for participation and completion may not add up to more than fifteen per cent of the total days in the stated term.
- A violation of prison rules can mean a credit is denied, or credits already earned are withdrawn, and the department finalizes the days subject to its own review of the person's conduct.
Who earns none. A person sentenced to death, a person serving a term for aggravated murder or murder, or for a conspiracy, attempt or complicity in either, a person serving life without parole, a person serving a term the sentencing sections say cannot be reduced, and a person serving a sentence for a sexually oriented offense committed on or after September 30, 2011 are not awarded any of these days.
An indefinite term: release is presumed. For a non life felony indefinite prison term, the section presumes release when the minimum term expires, or on the presumptive earned early release date if that comes first. The department may rebut the presumption only at a hearing, and only on the grounds the section lists: rule infractions that compromised security or the safety of staff or inmates, or that involved physical harm or the threat of it, or a violation of law that was not prosecuted, showing the person has not been rehabilitated, together with behavior showing the person continues to pose a threat to society; or classification at security level three or higher at the time of the hearing. Placement in extended restrictive housing during the year before the hearing is also a ground.
If the department rebuts it, it may keep the person for an additional period it specifies, which may not go past the maximum term, and the same presumption applies at the end of that period. A person not released earlier is released when the maximum term expires. The director may also recommend that the sentencing court reduce the minimum term by five to fifteen per cent for exceptional conduct or adjustment to incarceration, except for a sexually oriented offense. The court holds a hearing, grants the reduction unless it finds the presumption rebutted, and notifies the department of its decision not later than sixty days after it receives the director's notice.
| Nonmandatory prison term | Earliest judicial release motion |
|---|---|
| Nonmandatory prison termUnder two years | Earliest judicial release motionAny time after delivery to the prison, or after every mandatory term has expired |
| Nonmandatory prison termTwo years or more, but less than five years | Earliest judicial release motionOne hundred eighty days after delivery, or after every mandatory term has expired |
| Nonmandatory prison termFive years | Earliest judicial release motionOnce four years of the stated term are served, or four years after every mandatory term has expired |
| Nonmandatory prison termMore than five years, up to ten | Earliest judicial release motionOnce five years of the stated term are served, or five years after every mandatory term has expired |
| Nonmandatory prison termMore than ten years | Earliest judicial release motionOnce half the stated term has been served, or the five years above, whichever is later |
Judicial release is a reduction of the nonmandatory part of a prison term by the sentencing court. An eligible offender is a person serving a stated prison term that includes one or more nonmandatory terms, apart from certain offenses committed while holding public office. The court may deny the motion without a hearing, but may not grant it to an eligible offender without one, and after a hearing and a denial it does not consider another motion from that offender as an eligible offender.
Life sentences. A prisoner serving life for an offense committed on or after July 1, 1996 earns none of the program credit and becomes eligible for parole on the section's schedule: for life imposed for murder, when the minimum term expires; for life with parole eligibility after twenty years, or after twenty five or thirty full years, once that term is served; for life imposed for rape, after ten full years. Life without parole carries no parole eligibility.
Before a parole is granted. The adult parole authority may grant parole to a prisoner who is eligible if in its judgment there is reasonable ground to believe it would further the interests of justice and be consistent with the welfare and security of society. It provides notice of a pending parole at least sixty days before granting it to the prosecuting attorney and the judge of the court of common pleas of the county where the indictment was found, and, where the section requires, to the victim. Any person may send the authority a written statement about the offense and the pending action at any time before it grants a parole.
Credit earned before April 4, 2024 is counted under the earlier section, which this page does not set out. The department's rules on which programs earn credit, the hearings it holds on rebutting the presumption, transitional control, pardons and commutations, and the state of emergency route to judicial release are not on this page. Whether a particular sentence earns any of this is a question for a licensed Ohio attorney.
Sources for this section (7)
- ORC 2967.194 — Earning days of credit toward a stated prison term, on and after April 4, 2024
- ORC 2967.271 — The presumption of release at the end of a minimum term under a non life felony indefinite sentence
- ORC 2967.191 — Reducing a prison term for the days confined before it began
- ORC 2929.20 — Sentence reduction through judicial release
- ORC 2967.13 — Eligibility for parole on a life sentence
- ORC 2967.03 — The adult parole authority's powers as to parole
- ORC 2967.12 — Notice of a pending pardon, commutation or parole
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of September 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed Ohio attorney.