Board of Pardons and Paroles
Most Georgia inmates are entitled by law to periodic consideration for parole. Exceptions to this are offenders sentenced to: a term-of-years sentence for a serious violent felony, life without parole and fourth-felony recidivists. Eligible inmates are automatically considered for parole, regardless of appeals or other legal action by the inmate or his or her representative. Every offender has a parole eligibility date, typically at one-third of their sentence. However, it is highly unusual for an offender to be paroled at the earliest possible date.
Eligibility for parole does not imply release on parole
The Board evaluates all parole eligible inmates, other than those sentenced to life, using Parole Decision Guidelines, a model which provides a recommended period of confinement ( including the entire prison sentence in many cases), based on the severity of the crime, and the presence or absence of certain predictive factors. By majority vote the Board members either agree with the Guidelines recommendation or depart from it and render an independent decision. Guidelines assist the Board in making more consistent and soundly based decisions which are understandable for the inmate and accountable to the public. Life-sentenced offenders are not evaluated under Parole Decision Guidelines.
Serious Violent Felonies (Seven Deadly Sins/Two-strikes)
Offenders convicted for the first time of one of the serious violent felonies of rape, armed robbery, kidnapping, aggravated sodomy, aggravated sexual battery, or aggravated child molestation after January 1, 1995, and sentenced to any sentence except a life sentence (e.g., 20 years, 30 years, etc.), must serve the entire sentence without the possibility of parole. Persons convicted a second time of any of these crimes, or murder (there is no term-of-years sentence for murder), must receive a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.
90% Policy Struck Down
The Board's 90% policy was struck down by the courts in 2005. On January 1, 2006, the Board adopted a new crime severity Level VIII for offenses previously governed by its 90% policy, as well as the most serious drug offenses. Crime severity level VIII will only apply to offenders committing one of the specified offenses on or after January 1, 2006. Click on "Parole Consideration and Eligibility" for more information. All inmates previously considered using the 90% policy have been reconsidered for parole without regard to the 90% policy.