Arkansas Probation and Parole: Conditions, Fees, and Revocation

Arkansas probation and parole are both forms of community supervision, but they come from different places: probation is ordered by a judge instead of prison time, while parole is granted by the Post-Prison Transfer Board after you’ve served part of a prison sentence. Both are run day-to-day by the Division of Community Correction (DCC), which assigns you an officer and a written set of conditions.¹ Break those conditions and you can face graduated sanctions, extra restrictions, or full revocation and a return to custody.

Probation and Parole Are Not the Same Thing

Probation is a sentencing option. The judge suspends your sentence and places you in the community under conditions, and that same court keeps authority over your case, including any revocation hearing.² Probation can’t last longer than the maximum prison sentence allowed for the offense.³

Parole is a release mechanism. After you’ve served a portion of your prison term, the Post-Prison Transfer Board can release you to the community if it decides you can be returned without posing a risk to public safety.⁴ While on parole, you remain in the legal custody of the releasing agency, and the Post-Prison Transfer Board, not the sentencing court, retains authority. Arkansas also uses a closely related category called post-release supervision that operates under the same general framework with its own sanction and revocation statutes.⁵

Either way, your supervision officer works for the DCC, and the conditions you receive are enforced the same way on the ground.

Standard Conditions You Have to Follow

At the start of your supervision, your officer gives you a written list of conditions and tells you that failing to comply puts your liberty at risk. State law requires that written statement.⁶ The specific conditions come from the sentencing court for probation and from the Post-Prison Transfer Board for parole, but the standard package looks similar across both:

Maintain full-time lawful employment, generally at least 30 hours per week, or be enrolled in school or vocational training. Your officer can grant exceptions.
Notify your officer at least ten days before any change of residence. If an unexpected change happens, report it within 72 hours.
Submit to random drug and alcohol screenings as directed.
Do not knowingly associate with other convicted felons or co-defendants without your officer’s permission.
Do not leave your judicial district (for probation) or the state (for parole) without advance permission.
Report any arrest or law enforcement contact to your officer within 72 hours.
Pay all court-ordered fines, fees, and restitution.

The court or the Board can add special conditions on top of the standard list, such as substance abuse treatment, a curfew, or electronic monitoring.

After release from incarceration, you’re generally expected to report to your assigned officer for intake within 24 hours or by the next working day.⁷ Confirm the exact time and location before you leave the facility. Missing that first appointment is one of the fastest ways to start supervision with a violation already on your record.

Your officer has broad authority to monitor compliance. Officers can visit your home or workplace at any time, confiscate contraband in plain view, conduct searches, and issue or request an arrest warrant if they have reason to believe you’ve violated a condition.

Supervision Fees

Arkansas charges a monthly supervision fee of $35 to everyone on probation, parole, or post-release supervision. The Board of Corrections can adjust that fee by up to 20%, but it can never exceed $50 per month and cannot be raised more than once every two calendar years.⁸ The fee is separate from fines, restitution, and court costs. Electronic monitoring and specialty drug testing can carry additional charges.

Falling behind on financial obligations can itself become a violation, so raise any hardship with your officer before you miss a payment rather than after.

What Happens When You Violate a Condition

Officers generally sort violations into two groups. Technical violations include things like missing an appointment, failing a drug test, or moving without permission. New criminal offenses are treated more seriously. Arkansas law pushes most technical violations through a system of intermediate sanctions before anyone files for full revocation.

Intermediate Sanctions

The DCC maintains a sanctions grid that assigns point values to common violations and guides officers toward a proportionate response. The grid also awards points for positive behaviors such as completing education, workforce development, or community service, and those points can offset violation points.⁶ Available intermediate sanctions include community service, increased substance abuse screening and treatment, increased monitoring (including electronic monitoring and home confinement), and short-term incarceration of up to 7 days in a county or regional jail, or up to 90 days in a Division of Correction or Division of Community Correction facility.

Incarceration as an intermediate sanction cannot be used more than six times on the same person. Once your accumulated jail time from these sanctions exceeds 30 days in a county facility or 360 days in a state facility, your officer must recommend full revocation instead.⁶

Probation uses a similar graduated approach. You can be confined for a violation without having probation fully revoked. After being confined twice for technical or serious violations, or six times total, the state can seek full revocation on the next violation.⁹ The state can also skip the graduated steps and go straight to revocation if it shows by a preponderance of the evidence that you’re engaging in behavior that threatens the community.

Probation Revocation Hearings

If your case moves to a formal revocation petition, you’re entitled to two hearings. The first is a preliminary hearing to determine whether there’s reasonable cause to believe you violated. The second is a full revocation hearing before the sentencing court, which must happen within 60 days of your arrest.²

At both hearings you have the right to hear the evidence against you and challenge it, present your own evidence and witnesses, be represented by an attorney, and confront and cross-examine adverse witnesses unless the court finds good cause to restrict that right. The court can admit relevant evidence that wouldn’t be allowed in a criminal trial, including letters, affidavits, and documents. The standard of proof is preponderance of the evidence, which is lower than the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard at a criminal trial. If the court finds a violation, it can extend your probation, modify your conditions, or revoke your suspended sentence and send you to prison.²

Parole and Post-Release Revocation Hearings

Parole and post-release revocation moves faster. The hearing must be scheduled within 7 days of your arrest and conducted within 14 days, excluding weekends, holidays, and delays from natural disasters. When the hearing takes place inside that 14-day window, no separate preliminary hearing is required.¹⁰

You must get written notice at least 72 hours before the hearing, with the date, time, location, and the specific violations alleged. You can hear the evidence, present a defense, call witnesses, and confront the state’s witnesses. One important limitation: you can hire an attorney, but the state is not required to appoint one if you can’t afford counsel.¹⁰ You can file a motion for appointment of counsel with the hearing examiner, but appointment is not guaranteed.¹¹

The hearing examiner decides whether, by a preponderance of the evidence, you inexcusably failed to comply with your conditions. If revocation is ordered, you have the right to appeal.

When Revocation Is Mandatory

Some violations skip the graduated system entirely. If the Post-Prison Transfer Board determines a parolee has been charged with a violent felony or a felony requiring sex offender registration, the Board must issue an arrest warrant and the parolee must be detained pending a mandatory revocation hearing.¹² If you’re convicted of, plead guilty to, or plead no contest to any felony while on parole and receive a new prison sentence, the Board can revoke your parole without a hearing at all.

Getting Off Supervision Early

Arkansas has an early discharge mechanism for felony sentences entered on or after July 27, 2011, if the offense qualifies under the earned-discharge statutes. If you accumulate enough days through time served plus earned credits to equal the total days in your sentence, the DCC calculates a discharge date and notifies the prosecuting attorney and the Post-Prison Transfer Board at least 45 days ahead.¹³

The prosecutor or the Board has 30 days to file a written objection. If one is filed, the DCC suspends the discharge and you can petition the sentencing court for a review hearing, which must happen within 14 days. If no objection comes in within 30 days, you can petition the court to discharge you immediately.¹³ If you’re not sure whether your offense qualifies, your officer or the DCC can run the math on your earned-time credits.

Moving Out of State While on Supervision

If you need to leave Arkansas during your term, the transfer runs through the Interstate Compact for Adult Offender Supervision (ICAOS). The transfer is a privilege, not a right, and requires cooperation between Arkansas as the sending state and the receiving state.¹⁴

A mandatory transfer applies when you meet all the ICAOS criteria: Arkansas approves the request, you have more than 90 days remaining on supervision, you’re in substantial compliance, and you have a qualifying reason such as family residence or employment. When those criteria are met, the receiving state generally must accept the case. A discretionary transfer applies when you don’t meet all the mandatory criteria but both states agree the move supports success and public safety.¹⁴

The Arkansas application fee for an interstate transfer is $100.¹⁵ The process takes time because the receiving state investigates your proposed living arrangements and supervision plan before accepting the case. Talk to your officer well before your intended move date.

Voting Rights After a Felony Conviction

If you were convicted of a felony, you can’t vote in Arkansas while you’re still on probation or parole. Voting rights are restored only after you’ve been fully discharged from supervision, satisfied all terms of imprisonment, and paid all applicable court costs, fines, restitution, and supervision fees. Once those conditions are met, you provide proof of completion to the voter registration department of your county clerk’s office and submit a new voter registration application. The governing authority is Amendment 51 to the Arkansas Constitution.

1
Arkansas Department of Corrections. About Us – Division of Community Correction
2
Justia. Arkansas Code 16-93-307 – Probation Generally – Revocation Hearings
3
Justia. Arkansas Code 5-4-306 – Time Period Generally
4
Justia. Arkansas Code 16-93-701 – Authority to Grant and Parameters of Parole
5
Arkansas Department of Corrections. Parole and Post-Release Supervision Process
6
Justia. Arkansas Code 16-93-1907 – Post-Release Supervision
7
Arkansas General Assembly. Parole Process
8
Justia. Arkansas Code 16-93-104 – Supervision Fee
9
FindLaw. Arkansas Code 16-93-308 – Probation Generally – Revocation Hearings
10
Arkansas General Assembly. Revocation of Parole and Post-Release Supervision Rule
11
Arkansas Department of Corrections. FAQs – Arkansas Post-Prison Transfer Board
12
Justia. Arkansas Code 16-93-705 – Revocation
13
Code of Arkansas Rules. 16 CAR 23-602 – Early Discharge of Supervision
14
Interstate Commission for Adult Offender Supervision. Starting the Transfer Process
15
Interstate Commission for Adult Offender Supervision. Fees