Projected vs Actual Release Date
A projected release date is a planning or computation date. An actual release date is the date custody ended. The difference matters in Lincoln County because the county has both a local jail and a state prison. A Lincoln County Jail detainee may leave because bond posted, charges were released, a sentence ended, a detainer cleared, or a court order changed the case. A CDOC prisoner at Limon Correctional Facility may have a Parole Eligibility Date, Mandatory Release Date, parole-board action, or discharge date that changes as credits, court documents, and supervision decisions change.
Scheduled is not final: A projected date can move. A person may not leave on the projected date if a hold, detainer, warrant, transport issue, parole plan, court order, or CDOC recalculation changes the release path. A pretrial detainee normally has no fixed release date until bond, court disposition, or another release order controls the case.
For current county custody, the Lincoln County Sheriff roster can show JailId, photo, name, charges, current disposition, and total bail, but it is not a complete release-date archive. For prison custody, CDOC offender search at doc.state.co.us/oss is the statewide public search. Important CDOC results should be confirmed with CDOC because the offender-search disclaimer says database information may sometimes be inaccurate and should be verified through the department when it matters.
How to Find a Lincoln County Inmate's Projected Release Date
The best workflow is to identify the facility first. Lincoln County Jail and Limon Correctional Facility are in the same county, but they answer different release-date questions. The county jail is operated by the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office. Limon Correctional Facility is a CDOC state prison. A county jail bond question should not be calculated with prison earned-time rules, and a CDOC prison sentence should not be verified through the county roster alone.
- Identify the custody setting. Use Lincoln County Jail for local jail custody and Limon Correctional Facility or CDOC offender search for state prison custody.
- For a current jail detainee, check the sheriff roster at inmateroster.lincolncountysheriff.us. Treat roster absence as a lead only. It may mean release, transfer, court transport, extradition, different spelling, or movement to another system.
- For a county jail bond question, use the Lincoln County bonding page and court record. Lincoln County states that a physically present defendant who posts bond after bond is set must be released within six hours.
- For a county jail sentence or time-served question, use the sentencing order, jail release record, and court docket. Do not apply CDOC PED or MRD rules to a short local jail sentence.
- For a CDOC prisoner, search by DOC number at CDOC offender search when available. If not, search by last name and first name, using name variants when needed.
- Open the CDOC detail record and look for custody status, release date, parole or supervision status, sentence/case information, facility history, and any parole board or projected/mandatory release fields.
- Use CDOC Time Comp definitions for PED, MRD, good time, earned time, and mittimus. If the computation remains unclear, email CDOC Time and Release Operations at DOC_Time_Release_Operations@state.co.us with the incarcerated individual's name and DOC number.
- For parole timing, check the parole-board calendar and CWISE. For federal custody, use the Bureau of Prisons locator rather than Lincoln County or CDOC records.
For a broader search path that includes release records, courts, VINE, and agency handoffs, start with Lincoln County released inmates and then move to the system that created the custody record.
Good-Time Credit and How Release Dates Are Computed
Colorado prison release calculations start with the court mittimus. CDOC explains that the court issues the mittimus and that CDOC does not have authority to modify the sentence or change the mittimus. Time and Release Operations calculates dates from the sentence, applicable statutes, presentence confinement credit, and earned time. If a Lincoln County mittimus is corrected or amended, the court record and amended mittimus are the correction path, and CDOC time computation follows that court document.
| CDOC term | Meaning for a projected release question |
|---|---|
| Mittimus | The court-issued sentencing document that outlines the sentence CDOC must calculate from. |
| PED | Parole Eligibility Date, the first date the person is eligible to be released to parole. It is not a guarantee. |
| MRD | Mandatory Release Date, the maximum incarceration period if discretionary parole is not granted, subject to credits and lawful changes. |
| Good time | A portion of the maximum sentence, either 50% or 25% depending on statutory conviction requirements, credited to establish parole eligibility. |
| Earned time | A monthly award, often 10 or 12 days per month depending on statute and conviction, that can bring PED and MRD closer when statutory requirements are met. |
C.R.S. 17-22.5-403 governs parole eligibility for many Colorado felony sentences. C.R.S. 17-22.5-405 governs earned time and allows earned-time deductions within the statutory limits, including 10-day and certain 12-day provisions depending on the conviction category. C.R.S. 18-1.3-406 governs crimes of violence and enhanced sentencing. The State Board of Parole rules at 8 CCR 1511-1 define PED as the earliest possible parole release date established by sentence length, time served, good-time credits earned or lost, and statute, as calculated by CDOC offender time and release operations.
Why a Projected Release Date Changes
A projected date can change because it is tied to records and decisions that can change. Some changes are mathematical, such as applying presentence confinement credit. Some are legal, such as a corrected mittimus. Some are operational, such as a parole plan delay or detainer. For Lincoln County, the key distinction remains the same: county jail timing is controlled by court, bond, jail, and hold status; CDOC timing is controlled by the mittimus, statutes, credits, and parole decisions.
| What changes the date | How it affects release | Where to confirm |
|---|---|---|
| Bond posted or changed | Can create a near-term county jail release if the defendant is physically present and all conditions are met. | Lincoln County Jail, bonding page, court order, bond receipt. |
| Time served or sentence credit | Can end a local jail sentence or affect CDOC calculation when presentence confinement credit is applied. | Court sentencing order, jail release record, CDOC Time and Release Operations. |
| Amended mittimus | Can require CDOC to recalculate PED, MRD, or discharge timing. | Colorado Judicial Branch case record and CDOC records. |
| Earned time gained, withheld, or removed | Can move CDOC eligibility or mandatory dates closer or later within statutory limits. | CDOC offender search and Time and Release Operations. |
| Discipline or misconduct | Can affect credits or release readiness in a prison case. | CDOC records and facility case management. |
| Detainer, hold, warrant, or extradition | Can prevent community release even when the local jail or prison sentence otherwise reaches a release point. | Jail records, court docket, receiving agency, BOP, ICE, or CDOC. |
| Parole board action | Grant, denial, deferral, rescission, revocation, or conditions can change actual release timing. | Parole-board calendar, CDOC offender search, CWISE, CDOC records. |
| Database lag or correction | Public results may trail the official record or be corrected after review. | Originating agency records office. |
Confirming a Release Date
Use the source that controls the custody event. For county jail release confirmation, request or verify through the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office and the court record. The sheriff's records request form can be used for a jail booking or release record and says requests are processed as soon as possible, with up to 3 working days when the record is inactive, unusually long, or requires LCSO administration review. If the information is a court or District Attorney record, the form warns that the requester may be referred to those agencies.
For prison release confirmation, use CDOC offender search, CDOC records, and CDOC Time and Release Operations. For parole questions, use the parole-board calendar and CWISE at 800-426-9143. For release or movement alerts, register through VINELink Inmate Search. Lincoln County Jail directly advertises VINE for phone, email, or text notice when an offender is released or moved. VINE is useful for alerts, but it does not replace a release record, court order, mittimus, or CDOC time-computation answer.
County Jail Timing vs CDOC PED and MRD
Lincoln County Jail release timing is often event-driven. Bond posting, a court order, dismissal, time served, transport, extradition, or a hold can control whether someone leaves. The local bonding source gives one concrete timing rule: after bond is set, the Sheriff's Office must release a physically present defendant who posts bond within six hours. That rule does not create a CDOC projected release date. It is a county jail bond-release rule.
CDOC timing is computation-driven. PED and MRD come from the mittimus, Colorado statutes, credits, and parole-board process. Limon Correctional Facility is located in Lincoln County, but it is not operated by the sheriff and its release records do not live in the county jail roster. A person released from Limon should be researched through CDOC offender search, Time and Release Operations, the parole calendar, CWISE, and CDOC records.
No Universal 85 Percent Rule
Colorado projected release questions should not be answered with a blanket 85 percent shortcut. The federal 85 percent concept is associated with federal BOP sentence-credit rules, not with every Colorado state sentence and not with Lincoln County Jail. Colorado uses PED, MRD, good time, earned time, parole-board discretion, crime-of-violence provisions, sex-offense sentence structures, and other statutes.
Some Colorado violent-crime categories can involve a 75 percent parole-eligibility framework, less earned time where the law allows. Other sentences may use different calculations. Lower-level felony and drug felony categories may have earned-time provisions that differ from violent-crime calculations. The practical rule is to read the CDOC record, identify the statute and mittimus, then confirm any disputed calculation with CDOC Time and Release Operations or the court record that issued the sentence.
Colorado Time Comp in Lincoln County
Colorado projected release questions are not solved by one percentage because CDOC calculates dates from court documents and statutes. That is especially important in Lincoln County because Limon Correctional Facility creates a state-prison release path inside the county, while Lincoln County Jail creates a local custody path. The same name can appear in a county case, a CDOC record, a parole calendar, and a court docket at different points. The release date that matters is the one tied to the active custody authority.