Felony Probation Rules in Florida: Conditions and Violations

The rules of felony probation in Florida come from two places: a set of standard conditions written into state statute that apply to every probationer automatically, and special conditions a judge adds based on your offense. Break any of them, even a technical one like a missed appointment or a late payment, and you can be brought back before the court to face the original prison sentence. What follows is what you actually have to do, what will trip you up, and what your options are if something goes wrong.

The Standard Conditions That Attach to Every Case

Florida Statutes section 948.03 sets out the conditions that come with every felony probation sentence. The judge does not have to read them aloud at sentencing for them to apply.¹

Report to your probation officer as directed. Remote reporting is allowed if the officer and the Department of Corrections approve it and the judge did not rule it out.
Hold suitable employment or make a genuine effort to find work.
Stay within the geographic area the court specifies.
Do not violate any law. A formal conviction is not required to trigger this condition; an arrest or credible evidence of illegal conduct can be enough.
Pay court-ordered restitution. The judge must order restitution to the victim unless there are compelling reasons not to, and those reasons must go on the record.
Do not associate with people engaged in criminal activity.
Submit to random drug and alcohol testing as directed by your officer or a treatment program.
Support your legal dependents to the best of your ability.

You also have to allow home visits, pay any assessed court costs and fees, and repay any debt owed for medical care received while you were in a county jail.¹ Any change in your employment, residence, or contact information has to be reported right away. Even moving to a different unit in the same apartment complex needs prior approval.

Monthly Supervision Fees

Every felony probationer in Florida pays a monthly supervision fee to the Department of Corrections. Under section 948.09, the court sets the amount, which cannot exceed the actual daily cost of your supervision times the days in the month. Felony probationers pay an additional $2 per month surcharge on top of that.² Most circuits set the fee at around $50 per month or less, though the exact figure varies. Falling behind can itself become a violation, so if you hit a rough patch, raise it with your officer before you stop paying.

Special Conditions the Judge Can Add

On top of the standard conditions, the judge tailors additional requirements to your offense and your history. The heaviest sets of add-ons apply to sex offenses, domestic violence, and drug or alcohol cases.

Sex Offense Cases

Section 948.30 requires a mandatory curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., with a possible alternative 8-hour window if your work schedule conflicts.³ If the victim was under 18, you cannot live within 1,000 feet of a school, child care facility, park, playground, or any other place children regularly gather. That distance is measured in a straight line from your residence to the nearest boundary of the restricted location.

Electronic monitoring is mandatory for certain offenses involving victims 15 or younger where the offender is 18 or older, for anyone designated a sexual predator, and for repeat offenders with prior qualifying convictions. Courts can order monitoring in other cases when the probation officer and the Department of Corrections recommend it. Internet access is barred until a qualified practitioner in your sex offender treatment program completes a risk assessment and approves a safety plan. You also have to sit for at least one polygraph per year at your own expense; the results go to your officer and treatment provider but cannot be used in court to prove a violation.³

Domestic Violence Cases

A domestic violence conviction carries a minimum of one year of probation regardless of the severity of the charge, and the court must order you to attend and complete a batterer’s intervention program.⁴ The program runs at least 29 weeks, with a minimum of 24 weekly group sessions plus intake and assessment.⁵ A judge can waive this only if the record shows you do not qualify, and the reasoning has to be stated on the record. No-contact orders with the victim are common, and violating one compounds your legal problems significantly.

Drug, Alcohol, and Other Case-Specific Conditions

If drugs or alcohol were involved in the offense, expect frequent testing, mandatory treatment, and possibly residential rehabilitation. Financial crimes can bring financial management coursework. Judges lean on recommendations from prosecutors, defense attorneys, and probation officers when building this package, so the conditions you get are calibrated to your case.

Community Control Is Not the Same as Probation

Florida has an intermediate supervision level called community control that is often confused with probation. Community control is essentially court-ordered house arrest, defined by statute as “intensive, supervised custody in the community, including surveillance on weekends and holidays” with officers carrying reduced caseloads. You are confined to your home or an approved residence and may only leave during specific hours for approved reasons like work or school. Standard probation allows far more movement within your jurisdiction and requires scheduled contacts rather than around-the-clock surveillance.⁶

Judges sometimes stack the two, ordering community control followed by a longer probation term. If that describes your sentence, know that time on community control does not count toward the half-of-term threshold for early termination of probation.

Travel Rules

Staying within your assigned area, usually the judicial circuit where you were sentenced, is a standing condition. Leaving without permission counts as a violation even for a family emergency.¹ To travel, you submit a formal request covering destination, purpose, and length of trip. Whether it gets approved depends on your compliance history and whether all your conditions are current.

Out-of-state relocation is a longer process. Florida participates in the Interstate Compact for Adult Offender Supervision, so your officer has to submit a transfer request through the compact system and the receiving state has to investigate and accept you before you can move. No court or parole authority in Florida can authorize the relocation before the other state signs off.⁷ Leaving without completing this process, or overstaying an approved trip, can lead to revocation.

The Firearm Ban

This is the condition that catches more felony probationers than almost any other. Under Florida Statutes section 790.23, anyone convicted of a felony is prohibited from owning or possessing any firearm, ammunition, or electric weapon. The ban does not end when your probation ends. It survives until your civil rights and firearm authority are formally restored.⁸

Violating the ban is a second-degree felony on its own, punishable by up to 15 years in prison on top of whatever happens with your probation. A prior qualifying gang-related enhancement pushes it to a first-degree felony punishable by up to life.⁸ Possession here means having a gun in your car, your home, or anywhere within your control. If you live with someone who owns firearms, those weapons need to be stored somewhere you cannot access them.

What Counts as a Violation

Florida law splits probation violations into two categories, and the difference decides what happens next.

A technical violation is any breach of your conditions that does not involve a new crime. Missing an appointment, failing a drug test, leaving the county without permission, skipping a treatment session, or falling behind on restitution all qualify.⁹ A substantive violation means you have been arrested for or charged with a new felony, misdemeanor, or criminal traffic offense.

Alternative Sanctions Before a Formal Violation

Every judicial circuit in Florida must operate an alternative sanctioning program for technical violations. Before filing a formal violation with the court, your probation officer has to determine whether you qualify. If you do, the officer can offer an alternative sanction instead of taking you to court.⁹ For a first or second low-risk technical violation, the options include:

Up to 5 days in county jail
Up to 50 hours of additional community service
Counseling or treatment
Mandatory support group attendance
Additional drug testing
Loss of travel or other privileges
Curfew for up to 30 days
House arrest for up to 30 days

A third low-risk violation in the same supervision term escalates to a moderate-risk violation, with tougher options: up to 21 days in jail, curfew or house arrest for up to 90 days, electronic monitoring for up to 90 days, or residential treatment for up to 90 days. Every alternative sanction has to be submitted to the court by the officer for approval before it takes effect.⁹

Formal Violation Hearings

When the alternative sanctioning program does not apply, or the violation is substantive, the probation officer files an affidavit of violation. The judge can then issue an arrest warrant, or in less serious situations involving someone with no prior qualifying convictions, a notice to appear.⁹

Bond is not guaranteed. For violent felony offenders of special concern, anyone on felony probation arrested for a qualifying offense, and designated sexual predators, bond is flatly prohibited pending the hearing. For everyone else, the judge has discretion and may consider whether a prison sentence is more likely than not when setting the amount.⁹

The evidentiary standard at the hearing is much lower than at a criminal trial. The state only has to show by a preponderance of the evidence that you violated. That is why violations are so often sustained even when the underlying facts are contested.

What Happens if the Court Finds a Violation

The judge has three options: reinstate your probation on the existing terms, modify it with stricter conditions, or revoke it. Revocation means you can be ordered to serve the remainder of your original sentence in state prison. Violations involving a new offense produce the harshest outcomes because you also face the penalties for the new crime.

Filing the affidavit tolls your probation, meaning the clock stops from the moment the affidavit is filed until the court rules. Time spent waiting for your hearing does not count toward completing your term.⁹

Ending Probation Early

Florida Statutes section 948.04 creates a path to end probation early. For sentences imposed on or after October 1, 2019, the court is required to grant early termination or convert your supervision to administrative probation if you meet all five of these criteria:

You have completed at least half of your probation term.
You have successfully completed all conditions.
The court has never found you in violation during your current term.
Your plea agreement did not specifically exclude early termination.
You do not qualify as a violent felony offender of special concern.

The word “shall” in the statute makes this mandatory rather than discretionary, a meaningful shift from the older system where early termination was entirely up to the judge. The court can still decline, but only with written findings that continued supervision is needed to protect the community or serve the interests of justice. If community control preceded your probation, that time does not count toward the halfway threshold; you must complete half of the probation period itself.¹⁰

Two other exits exist. Section 948.04(3) allows the Department of Corrections to recommend early termination at any time if you have performed satisfactorily, have no violations, and have paid all financial obligations. Section 948.05 leaves the court with general authority to discharge a probationer whenever it decides doing so serves the interests of justice.¹¹

Early termination ends the supervision but does not erase the felony conviction. Sealing or expunging your record is a separate proceeding, and eligibility is limited.

A Note for Non-Citizens

If you are not a U.S. citizen, the felony conviction itself carries consequences beyond probation, and being on probation rather than in prison does not shield you from them. Aggravated felonies, including drug trafficking, fraud above certain dollar thresholds, and violent crimes producing a sentence of one year or more, make deportation virtually certain and bar most immigration relief. Crimes involving dishonesty, violence, or drugs can trigger removal even when they do not rise to that level. Talk to an immigration attorney alongside your criminal defense lawyer; a mistake during probation can produce permanent consequences.

1
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 948.03 – Terms and Conditions of Probation
2
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 948.09 – Payment for Cost of Supervision
3
FindLaw. Florida Statutes 948.30 – Additional Terms and Conditions of Probation or Community Control for Certain Sex Offenses
4
Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes 741.281 – Court to Order Batterers Intervention Program Attendance
5
Florida Senate. Florida Senate Bill 680 – Batterers Intervention Programs
6
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 948.001 – Definitions
7
Florida Department of Corrections. Interstate Compact for Adult Offender Supervision
8
Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes 790.23 – Felons and Delinquents; Possession of Firearms, Ammunition, or Electric Weapons or Devices Unlawful
9
Justia Law. Florida Statutes 948.06 – Violation of Probation or Community Control; Revocation; Modification; Continuance
10
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 948.04 – Administrative Probation; Earned Compliance
11
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 948.05 – Court to Admonish or Commend Probationer or Offender in Community Control; Graduated Incentives