Oregon Sentencing Guidelines Grid 
As you can see from the graph, the PPS section in gray represents the recommended times for parole 
(post-prison supervision). Today, there are three basic types of parole in the United States, discretionary, 
mandatory, and expiatory. 
Discretionary parole is when an individual is eligible for parole or goes before a parole board prior to their 
mandatory parole eligibility date. It is at the discretion of the parole board to grant parole (with conditions) 
for these individuals. These prisoners are generally well-behaving prisoners that have demonstrated they can 
function within society (have completed all required programming). Discretionary parole had seen a rapid 
increase in the 1980s but took a marked decrease starting in the early 1990s. In more recent years, it is 
continuing to return as a viable release mechanism for over 100,000 inmates a year. 
1 
Trends in State Parole, 1990-2000. Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report. ODJ. 
Mandatory parole occurs when a prisoner hits a particular point in time in their sentence. When an inmate 
is sent to prison, two clocks begin. The first clock is forward counting and continues until their last day. The 
second clock starts at the end of their sentence and starts to work backward proportional to the “good days” 
an inmate has. Good days are days that an offender is free from incidents, write-ups, tickets, or other ways to 
describe rule infractions. For instance, for every week that an offender is a good prisoner, they might get two 
days taken off of the end of their sentence. When these two times converge, that would be a point in which 
mandatory parole could kick in for them. This must also be conditioned by truth in sentencing legislation, 
or what is considered an 85% rule. Many states have laws in place that stipulates that an inmate is not eligible 
for mandatory parole until they hit 85% of their original sentence. Thus, even though the date for the good 
1. Hughes, W., & Beck (2001). 
ALISON S. BURKE, DAVID CARTER, BRIAN FEDOREK, TIFFANY MOREY, LORE RUTZ-BURRI, AND SHANELL
SANCHEZ
368