(August 2025)  Supervised release is among the most common features of federal sentencing. Of those individuals sentenced under the guidelines in fiscal year 2024, more than 80% were sentenced to some term of supervised release. The Commission recently amended its guidance regarding supervised release to adopt a more flexible, individualized approach to imposing supervised release terms and conditions and fashioning responses to violations.

Learning Objectives

This eLearning program will review the key statutes, guidelines, rules, and policy statements for supervised release.

• The first lesson provides an overview of the purposes of supervised release, explaining how it differs in key respects from other forms of supervision.
• The next four lessons cover the implementation of supervised release—how supervised release is imposed, how it operates, and when an order of supervised release may be changed through modification, extension, or termination.
• The final four lessons address violations of supervised release, including potential responses to reported non-compliance, when a court must revoke supervision, and considerations for imposing a revocation sentence.