Parole

Parole is the provisional release of a prisoner who agrees to certain conditions prior to the completion of the maximum sentence period, originating from the French parole ("voice", "spoken words"). The term became associated during the Middle Ages with the release of prisoners who gave their word.

Criminal justice

This differs greatly from amnesty or commutation of sentence in that parolees are still considered to be serving their sentences, and may be returned to prison if they violate the conditions of their parole. A specific type of parole is medical parole or compassionate release which is the release of prisoners on medical or humanitarian grounds. Conditions of parole often include things such as obeying the law, refraining from drug and alcohol use, avoiding contact with the parolee's victims, obtaining employment, and maintaining required contacts with a parole officer. Some justice systems, such as the United States federal system, place defendants on supervised release after serving their entire prison sentence; this is not the same as parole. In Colorado, parole is an additional punishment after the entire prison sentence is served—it is called "mandatory parole", per §18-1.3-401(1)(a)(V)(B).