Parole And Supervision
ORC 2967.15 — conditions, an arrest, and a hearing
| The felony | Post release control period |
|---|---|
| The felonyA felony sex offense | Post release control periodFive years |
| The felonyFirst degree, not a sex offense | Post release control periodTwo to five years |
| The felonySecond degree, not a sex offense | Post release control periodEighteen months to three years |
| The felonyThird degree offense of violence, not a sex offense | Post release control periodOne to three years |
| The felonyOther third, fourth and fifth degree felonies | Post release control periodUp to two years, where the parole board decides it is necessary |
- Every person on parole or post release control is under the conditions that the person not leave the state without permission of the court or the parole or probation officer, and that the person abide by the law.
- The department may require that the person not ingest or be injected with a drug of abuse and submit to random drug testing.
- The parole board or court may add other conditions, including the residential, nonresidential and financial sanctions a sentencing court could impose.
Searches. Authorized field officers of the adult parole authority may search the person, the home, a vehicle and other property the person has a right to use, with or without a warrant, if they have reasonable grounds to believe the person has left the state, is not abiding by the law, or is not complying with the conditions, or if the person agreed to searches as a condition or otherwise consents. The authority gives each person a written notice saying so.
An alleged violation. A field officer with reasonable cause to believe a person under the authority's supervision has violated a condition may arrest the person without a warrant, or order a peace officer to. The person is held in the county jail or another facility the chief of the authority designates until a decision is made about the person's release status. If the authority does not decide the case within a reasonable time, the person is released from custody under the same terms and conditions as before.
A hearing before revocation. Before revoking parole or other release, or imposing a new prison term as a post release control sanction, the authority grants the person a hearing under the department's rules. No hearing is required where the person was convicted of or pleaded guilty to an offense committed while released and the revocation is based on it.
- At the hearing the person has the right to written notice beforehand of its date, time and location and of the specific violations alleged.
- The right to be heard in person, and to present relevant witnesses and documents.
- The right to confront and cross examine adverse witnesses, unless the hearing officer specifically finds good cause not to allow it and records the reasons.
- The right to disclosure of the evidence presented against the person.
- Representation by counsel where the charges or the evidence are complex or otherwise difficult for the person to present. For a person who cannot afford counsel, the office of the state public defender provides assistance on request.
- The right to a written digest of the hearing, if requested.
How it is decided. The hearing is held at the jail or facility where the person is in custody, or another place the unit supervisor designates, before a parole board member or hearing officer. It decides whether a preponderance of the evidence, taking the record as a whole, shows a violation, and whether mitigating circumstances make revocation or a prison sanction inappropriate. Revocation or a prison sanction is to be considered where the violation involves a deadly weapon or dangerous ordnance, physical harm or attempted serious physical harm to another person, or sexual misconduct.
Limits on a prison sanction. A prison term imposed as a post release control sanction may not exceed nine months, and all of them together may not exceed one half of the definite prison term originally imposed, or for an indefinite term one half of its minimum term.
A new felony. When a person on post release control is convicted of a new felony, the court may end the post release control and add a prison term for the violation of up to the greater of twelve months or the time left on post release control for the earlier felony, served consecutively to the term for the new felony.
Community control, the sentencing sections' name for what is often called probation, runs differently. During a period of community control any field officer or probation officer may arrest the person without a warrant and bring the person before the judge or magistrate. Within three business days after an arrest, the arresting officer or agency notifies the chief probation officer, and within thirty days of being notified the probation office brings the person before the judge or magistrate. What a court may do on a violation has its own page.
The end of supervision. The authority may grant a final release to a parolee who has faithfully performed the conditions and obeyed its rules, but not earlier than one year after release on parole, or five years for a life sentence. It may end post release control on the same showing, and for a person under the required period not earlier than one year after release.
Parole board release hearings, transitional control, supervision in another state, the department's list of sanctions an officer may impose without a hearing, and the time a violator at large does not get credit for are not on this page. Whether a hearing met the rule in a particular case is a question for a licensed Ohio attorney, and the office of the state public defender is named in the rule.
Sources for this section (7)
- ORC 2967.15 — Arrest for a violation of release, and the hearing before revocation
- ORC 2967.28 — Post release control
- ORC 2967.131 — Conditions of release under the adult parole authority, and searches
- OAC 5120:1-1-18 — Release revocation hearing, and the releasee's rights at it
- ORC 2929.141 — Committing an offense while on post release control
- ORC 2951.08 — Arrest of a person under a community control sanction
- ORC 2967.16 — Final release, termination of post release control, and the rights restored
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of September 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed Ohio attorney.