[Cryzzle]

Does the system have to tell you how long you parole will be?

[twinkiedooter]

Yes. You will find out just how long your probation or parole will be ahead of time. This should be spelled out in great detail at the time of your sentencing. You will be given a written copy of your sentencing as well showing you how many years/months your probation or parole will be. You only get paroled once you have served prison time by the way. Probation can be granted in lieu of any jail time or can be in addition to any imposed jail sentence such as 6 months jail time with 5 years probation.

[Fr_Chuck]

For parole, it is set by the parole board. The

For probation the judge sets the time frame

[JimGunther]

In my state they can't tell you what your parole will be in advance because it is not determined at the time of sentencing. I was a PO in MD for 7 years and handled both parole and probation cases. If a judge in MD sentences a person to 10 years for robbery (as an example), they are going to serve 10 years. But it will be a combination of jail time and parole. The person starts serving the 10 years and can earn all sorts of credits while in jail in this state, such as vocational, good behavior and overcrowding credit (to name a few), and might get out after serving 1/3 of their sentence. The rest of the 10 years will be on parole. The parole board decides when the person will be released and if they violate parole, the parole board decides what will happen to them.

To make it short, in MD you will know at sentencing what your total sentence will be, but you will not know at that time how much of it will be spent on parole. From what I understand, this is not an uncommon situation. I handled several transfer cases from other states that were set up this way.