Surprise Prison Term for Violation of Post-Release Control.

PRC is what we used to call parole and it is a part of every felony sentence.  Here is how the Department of Corrections describes it, "post‑release control (PRC) is a period of supervision of an offender by the Adult Parole Authority following release from imprisonment that includes one or more post release control sanctions imposed by the Parole Board pursuant to ORC section 2967.28."  You can find a chart with the PRC terms at http://www.drc.ohio.gov/web/PRC.htm.

Here is the danger handing cases with a client who catches a new criminal case while on PRC: the Parole Authority can impose an administrative sanction for a violation of PRC conditions and the Court handling the new case can impose a separate term of imprisonment for the PRC violation.  This term of imprisonment is in addition to the prison time for the new criminal case.  So, what might seem like an easy felony plea bargain with some administrative PRC sanction, can very quickly become a case with increments of additional years in prison for the PRC violation.  

R.C. 2929.141 specifically provides: 

(1) In addition to any prison term for the new felony, impose a prison term for the post‑release control violation. The maximum prison term for the violation shall be the greater of twelve months or the period of post‑release control for the earlier felony minus any time the person has spent under post‑release control for the earlier felony. In all cases, any prison term imposed for the violation shall be reduced by any prison term that is administratively imposed by the parole board as a post‑release control sanction. A prison term imposed for the violation shall be served consecutively to any prison term imposed for the new felony. The imposition of a prison term for the post‑release control violation shall terminate the period of post‑release control for the earlier felony.

(2) Impose a sanction under sections 2929.15 to 2929.18 of the Revised Code for the violation that shall be served concurrently or consecutively, as specified by the court, with any community control sanctions for the new felony.

If you have an issue like this, look first to the underlying conviction which brought the PRC to determine whether the PRC imposed by the Parole Authority is lawful.  The Ohio Supreme Court held recently that a sentence that did not impose the correct term of post-release control was void, and thus, an escape conviction cannot be based on an invalid sentence. State v. Billiter (2012), 134 Ohio St.3d 103. Therein, the Billiter trial court advised him of the potential for three years PRC, when five years was mandatory.  When he completed his sentence the Parole Authority imposed five.  When he caught his new case, the trial court imposed a new PRC prison term.  The Ohio Supreme Court held that the PRC term was void and because he had completed his term, it could not be corrected.