Kansas Good Time Law Changes: Earning, Losing, and Release

Kansas good time credits let an inmate shave 15% or 20% off the prison portion of a sentence for crimes committed on or after July 1, 1993, with the exact rate set by the offense’s severity level and date. A separate pool of program credits can take off up to another 120 days for completing qualifying education, vocational, or treatment programs. The most serious offenses earn nothing at all, and crimes committed before July 1, 1993, run on a different statute with much more generous rates.

How Much Time You Can Earn Off

Kansas does not apply one flat rate. Under K.S.A. 21-6821, the percentage depends on the type and severity of the crime and when it was committed:¹

15% is the baseline for any crime committed on or after July 1, 1993. This covers nondrug severity levels 1 through 6 and the most serious drug offenses.
20% applies to nondrug severity level 7 through 10 crimes committed on or after January 1, 2008. These are the lower end of the felony scale, including offenses like theft and criminal damage to property.
20% also applies to drug severity level 3 through 5 crimes committed on or after July 1, 2012, and to drug severity level 3 or 4 crimes committed between January 1, 2008, and July 1, 2012.

The percentage runs only against the prison portion of the sentence, not the full sentence including postrelease supervision. An inmate serving 60 months in prison for a severity level 8 nondrug offense committed after 2008 could earn up to 12 months off that prison term through good time alone.

The jump between tiers matters more than it might appear. Five percentage points on a long sentence translates to months, sometimes more than a year, of actual time behind bars.

Program Credits Stack On Top

Good time rewards staying out of trouble. Program credits reward actively working toward rehabilitation, and Kansas treats the two as independent reductions that stack. Program credits are capped at 120 days total, no matter how long the sentence.¹

Program credits are available only to inmates serving sentences for nondrug severity level 4 through 10 crimes or drug severity level 3 through 5 crimes, with date-specific variations for older offenses. If any sentence in your case falls outside those categories, you lose program credit eligibility entirely.

To earn the credit, an inmate must complete a program the Secretary of Corrections has designated as qualifying. The statute names four categories:

Earning a general education diploma (GED).
Technical or vocational training that builds job skills for post-release employment.
Substance abuse treatment.
Other risk-reduction programs the Secretary designates as shown to reduce an offender’s risk after release.

One carve-out: completing a sex offender treatment program does not earn program credits, even for an inmate who would otherwise qualify based on offense severity.

Who Cannot Earn Credits at All

Some inmates earn nothing through good time no matter how they behave or what they complete.

Off-grid crimes, including capital murder, first-degree murder, and certain sex offenses against children under 14, carry mandatory life sentences and sit outside the standard sentencing grid. Good time credits do not apply.

Certain severity level 1 offenses carry a mandatory 25-year prison term before parole eligibility. The statute states directly that this 25-year period “shall not be reduced by the application of good time credits.”²

The Catch for Sex Offenses

For sexually violent crimes, sexually motivated crimes requiring registration, and certain other sex-related offenses, good time credits do not actually shorten the total time an inmate spends under state control. Any good time subtracted from the prison portion gets added onto the postrelease supervision term. The clock keeps running; it just runs in the community instead of behind the walls.

For sexually violent crimes committed on or after July 1, 2006, by offenders 18 or older, postrelease supervision lasts for the rest of the person’s natural life.³

Supervision After Release Still Applies

Good time credits shorten prison time, not supervision. For crimes committed on or after July 1, 1993, Kansas imposes a mandatory postrelease supervision period that begins when the prison portion ends. Length depends on offense severity:

36 months for nondrug severity levels 1 through 4 and the most serious drug offenses.
24 months for nondrug severity levels 5 and 6 and mid-level drug offenses.
12 months for nondrug severity levels 7 through 10 and lower-level drug offenses.

The Secretary of Corrections can shorten the 36-month and 24-month terms by up to 12 months, and the 12-month term by up to 6 months, for offenders who perform well under supervision.³

How Credits Can Be Lost

The statute sets the framework; the Secretary of Corrections writes the rules for how credits accumulate and how they can be withheld. The statute itself declares that good behavior is “the expected norm” and that negative behavior will be punished. Credits are earned by meeting expectations, not awarded as a baseline entitlement.¹

Beyond the Secretary’s general disciplinary rules, the statute identifies specific court findings that automatically block any good time award for a review period: filing a false or malicious legal claim, bringing a lawsuit purely for harassment or delay, submitting false evidence, attempting to fabricate affidavits or testimony, or abusing the discovery process. This provision targets inmates who misuse the courts, separately from ordinary institutional discipline.

Due Process Before Credits Are Taken Away

Earned good time credits determine when an inmate actually walks out, so taking them away requires procedural fairness. The U.S. Supreme Court set the baseline in Wolff v. McDonnell (1974). Before a facility can revoke earned credits through a disciplinary proceeding, the inmate is entitled to written notice of the charges at least 24 hours before the hearing, a written statement of the evidence relied on, and the opportunity to call witnesses and present evidence in defense.

Those rights are not absolute. Prison officials can restrict witness testimony or evidence when it would create a genuine safety risk. But the core protection stands: credits already earned cannot be stripped without a meaningful chance to respond.

Where facilities interpret “good behavior” or “successful program completion” differently, inmates who believe credits were unfairly denied can challenge the decision through administrative appeals or in court. The question is always whether the facility followed its own procedures and gave the inmate the process the Constitution requires.

Pre-1993 Sentences Run on a Different Statute

Kansas overhauled sentencing in 1993. Crimes committed before July 1, 1993, fall under K.S.A. 22-3725, which is far more generous:⁴

For sentences under two years, an inmate earns one day of credit for every two days served, plus one additional month for every year served.
For sentences of two years or more, the maximum good time credit equals one-half of the entire sentence.

Under the old framework, credits determine eligibility for parole or conditional release rather than a fixed release date. The rate applies based on when the crime occurred, not when the sentence was imposed. The population of inmates still serving pre-1993 sentences shrinks each year, but for those who remain, a 50% rate dwarfs anything available under the current system.

Why Severity Level Matters at the Plea Stage

Good time eligibility shapes plea negotiations in ways the sentence range alone does not reveal. A severity level 6 nondrug offense earns 15% good time and no program credits. A severity level 7 nondrug offense earns 20% and up to 120 additional days through program credits. A negotiated plea to a lower severity level can produce an earlier actual release date even when the presumptive sentence range looks similar on paper.

Kansas uses determinate sentencing for post-1993 crimes. There is no parole board weighing whether to let someone out early. The prison portion of the sentence, minus earned credits, sets the release date, after which the inmate moves to mandatory postrelease supervision. That makes good time one of the few mechanisms that can meaningfully shorten time behind bars, and it gives inmates a concrete, calculable reason to participate in programming and stay out of trouble.³

1
Justia. Kansas Code 21-6821 – Good Time and Program Credits; Calculation; Forfeiture; Rules and Regulations of Secretary; Liability
2
Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes. Kansas Statutes 21-6804
3
Justia. Kansas Code 22-3717 – Parole or Postrelease Supervision
4
Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes. Kansas Statutes 22-3725 – Good Time Credits, Crimes Committed Prior to July 1, 1993