(a) If an inmate is sentenced to consecutive felony sentences under Article 42.08, Code of Criminal Procedure, a parole panel shall designate during each sentence the date, if any, the inmate would have been eligible for release on parole if the inmate had been sentenced to serve a single sentence.
(b) For the purposes of Article 42.08, Code of Criminal Procedure, the judgment and sentence of an inmate sentenced for a felony, other than the last sentence in a series of consecutive sentences, cease to operate:
(1) when the actual calendar time served by the inmate equals the sentence imposed by the court; or
(2) on the date a parole panel designates as the date the inmate would have been eligible for release on parole if the inmate had been sentenced to serve a single sentence.
(c) A parole panel may not:
(1) consider consecutive sentences as a single sentence for purposes of parole; or
(2) release on parole an inmate sentenced to serve consecutive felony sentences before the date the inmate becomes eligible for release on parole from the last sentence imposed on the inmate.
(d) A parole panel may not use calendar time served and good conduct time accrued by an inmate that are used by the panel in determining when a judgment and sentence cease to operate:
(1) for the same purpose in determining that date in a subsequent sentence in the same series of consecutive sentences; or
(2) for determining the date an inmate becomes eligible for release on parole from the last sentence in a series of consecutive sentences.