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About this visual Texas Department of Criminal Justice

More than half of people in TDCJ custody had reached their parole eligibility date.

Body / subject: Texas Department of Criminal Justice

Data / source: Texas Department of Criminal Justice, High Value Dataset: August 2026 (data.texas.gov/d/8v6z-ni96)

First published: date not yet reconciled · Retrieved Oct 16, 2026 · Updated Oct 17, 2026

August 2026 inmates-on-hand file

Aggregate counts only, from the August 2026 file. As-of date of Aug 31, 2026 is inferred from the latest decision date in the file. Past eligibility means a parole eligibility date on or before that date. Decision groups use the last parole decision recorded. 12,352 records have no eligibility date (including 1,653 life without parole and 160 death sentences). Each figure is about 1,000 people, rounded by largest remainder. The dataset does not record which parole vote type applies to an approval.

Read the explanation
Texas prisons · Parole

More than half of people in Texas prisons are past their parole eligibility date

Of 144,466 people in TDCJ custody, 76,048 (52.6%) had reached their parole eligibility date. Most were denied at their last review. 19,198 were approved and still in custody.

Takeaway: reaching parole eligibility in Texas usually means a review, not a release. 72% of those past eligibility were denied at their last decision.

Split the past-eligibility group by
Each figure ≈ 1,000 people

Hover or tap a figure or row for detail. Shares in this table are of the 76,048 past eligibility.

Approved, still in custody: when the approval was voted

Last approval date for the 19,198 people approved and past eligibility, 2026 by month.

What “approved, still in custody” can mean

An approval is not always an immediate release. Parole board vote options include release on a set future month (FI-2), release only after completing a TDCJ program, usually of a stated length (FI-3R through FI-18R), approval to the next sentence in a consecutive series (CU/FI), and mandatory-supervision release (RMS). The board can also withdraw an approval before release.

The dataset does not record which vote applies to each person. Half of these approvals came on or after May 8, 2026, and 11,657 came before June 1.

SOURCE: Texas Department of Criminal Justice, “High Value Dataset: August 2026” (Executive Services), data.texas.gov 8v6z-ni96 (August 2026 release, as of Aug 31, 2026, date inferred from latest decision in file). July check (32nq-da63): 143,780 in custody, 75,710 past eligibility (52.7%). Vote options: Board of Pardons and Paroles, tdcj.texas.gov/bpp, 37 TAC §145.12. Past eligibility = parole eligibility date on or before Aug 31, 2026. No date: 12,352 records without a parole eligibility date (includes 1,653 life without parole, 160 death sentences). Figures rounded to nearest 1,000 (largest remainder).
Local Insights analysis of TDCJ data.
Local Insights