Alabama Split Sentence Act: Felony Tiers, Probation, and Violations

Alabama’s Split Sentence Act lets a judge divide a felony sentence into a period of confinement followed by supervised probation instead of ordering the defendant to serve the entire term behind bars. The option covers sentences up to 30 years for Class A and B felonies and is mandatory for most Class C and D felonies of 15 years or less. Whether a split is available, and what it looks like, turns on the felony class, the sentence length, and whether the offense involved a child sex crime.¹

Class A and B Felonies: A Discretionary Split in Three Tiers

For Class A and B felonies, the judge may order a split sentence when the total sentence is 30 years or less, provided the conviction is not a child sex offense. The confinement portion falls into three tiers:

Sentence of 15 years or less: up to three years of confinement, with the rest suspended and the defendant placed on probation.
Sentence greater than 15 but not more than 20 years: three to five years of confinement, with the rest suspended.
Sentence greater than 20 but not more than 30 years: a minimum of 10 years of confinement, which cannot be served in a county jail and cannot be reduced by the court.

Nothing forces the judge to split at this level. A defendant convicted of a Class B felony with a 12-year sentence might get a split, or might serve the full term. For context, Class A felonies carry sentences from 10 years up to life, and Class B felonies run from 2 to 20 years.²

Class C and D Felonies: A Mandatory Split

Class C and D felonies work in the opposite direction. Unless the defendant is sentenced directly to probation, drug court, or a pretrial diversion program, the judge must impose a split when the total sentence is 15 years or less. The confinement portion cannot exceed two years, and the probation that follows is capped at three years.¹ Class C felonies run from just over one year up to 10 years; Class D felonies top out at five.²

Where that confinement is served differs by class. A Class C defendant can serve it in a prison, a treatment facility, or a community corrections program. A Class D defendant must serve it through a community corrections program that agrees to accept participants. If no program exists in the county or surrounding area, the court can place a Class D defendant on high-intensity probation under the Board of Pardons and Paroles instead.¹

A Class C felony with a sentence above 15 years but not more than 20 falls back into the discretionary track, with three to five years of confinement available. Class D felonies never reach that tier because their maximum sentence is five years.

Child Sex Offense Exclusion

The Act carves out child sex offenses. A Class A or Class B felony conviction for a sex offense involving a child cannot receive any split sentence, and probation is prohibited outright.¹ The full sentence must be served.

Habitual Offenders Lose the Class D Track

Prior convictions can move a defendant onto a harsher split-sentence track. Two or more prior Class A or Class B felony convictions cause a new Class D felony to be punished as a Class C felony.³ The reclassification is more than a label. The defendant loses the community-corrections requirement built into the Class D track and faces the longer sentences and broader confinement options that come with Class C.

No Parole or Good Time During the Minimum

The confinement portion of a split has to be served in full. A defendant cannot earn parole, and good-time deductions under the Alabama Correctional Incentive Time Act do not apply to the minimum period ordered by the judge.¹ Good time can apply to any additional confinement beyond that minimum. This catches people off guard, because inmates serving non-split sentences in Alabama typically begin accumulating good-time deductions from the start.

The court keeps one safety valve. Even after the defendant has begun serving the confinement portion, the judge can suspend the balance and convert it to probation.¹ It is not routine, but the authority is there.

What Probation Looks Like After Release

When the confinement portion ends, the defendant moves to supervised probation. Alabama law sets a baseline set of conditions unless the court orders otherwise.⁴ Standard conditions include:

Reporting to a probation officer on a set schedule and allowing home or other visits.
Working at suitable employment as far as possible.
Paying restitution to victims, fines, and court costs, in installments if the court allows.
Complying with substance abuse treatment, behavioral treatment, GPS monitoring, or other programs the court orders.
Not buying, owning, or possessing a firearm in violation of federal law or Alabama’s felon-in-possession prohibition.
Supporting dependents to the best of the defendant’s ability.

Probation covers all counts in the case unless the court expressly limits it. For Class A and B splits, the length is set by the court with no fixed statutory cap. For Class C and D splits, probation cannot exceed three years.¹ Conditions and length can be modified at any time.

Supervision Fees

Probation in Alabama is not free. A probationer with an income owes $40 per month toward the cost of supervision, starting 30 days after income begins. Courts can waive the fee for undue hardship, but the default is that every probationer pays.⁵ An arrearage of more than two months is grounds for revocation. Restitution, fines, and court costs stack on top of the supervision fee, so anyone with limited employment prospects should ask early about hardship waivers and installment plans rather than wait for missed payments to become a violation.

What a Probation Violation Triggers

The consequences of violating probation follow three different tracks depending on the underlying offense and the nature of the violation.⁶

Mandatory Revocation

If the original conviction was a violent Class A felony, a sex offense, or aggravated theft by deception, the court must revoke probation. The defendant goes back to prison to finish the balance of the original sentence, measured from the date of rearrest. The judge has no discretion, no matter how minor the violation.⁶

Discretionary Revocation

For other probationers, the court may revoke and order all or part of the remaining sentence served if the violation involved a new arrest, absconding, or failing to complete a court-ordered treatment or rehabilitative program. The judge weighs the circumstances and can choose full revocation, partial revocation, or a lesser sanction.⁶

Short Confinement for Technical Violations

Technical violations that don’t involve a new crime, absconding, or program failure are handled with short confinement periods sometimes called dunks. The court can impose up to 45 consecutive days in a residential transition center or a designated county jail. The 45 days is reduced by any pre-hearing custody, and the time counts toward the original suspended sentence. Probation automatically resumes when the period ends.⁶

A defendant can receive up to three of these short confinement periods. After the third, the court can revoke probation and send the defendant to prison for the balance of the original sentence. The total time spent in dunks cannot exceed the length of the original sentence. Most split-sentence probationers who run into trouble encounter this graduated system before anything more serious happens, but three is a hard limit.

Community Corrections and Local Availability

Community corrections programs are built into the split-sentence framework for lower-level felonies. They provide structured supervision outside prison, with counseling, job training, and education. For Class D felonies, the law directs defendants into community corrections rather than traditional incarceration during the confinement portion.¹

Availability varies by county. No program is required to accept participants beyond its staffing and design capacity, and courts cannot sentence someone to a program that would exceed its maximum participation.⁷ The law encourages neighboring counties to collaborate on multi-county facilities where a single county lacks a program. Where no option exists at all, Class D defendants can be placed on high-intensity probation under the Board of Pardons and Paroles. The gap between what the statute contemplates and what any given county actually offers is one reason outcomes under the Split Sentence Act look different from one courthouse to the next.

1
Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 15-18-8 – Terms of Confinement, Etc.; Probation
2
Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 13A-5-6 – Sentences of Imprisonment for Felonies
3
Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 13A-5-9 – Habitual Felony Offenders – Additional Penalties
4
Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 15-22-52 – Conditions of Probation
5
Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 15-22-2 – Supervision Fee; Probationers Upkeep Fund; Exclusion from Taxable Income; Compliance with Rules and Regulations
6
Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 15-22-54 – Period of Probation; Termination of Probation; Violation of Probation; Sanctions
7
Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 15-18-175 – Eligibility; Exclusion; Sentencing