HBA-KDB C.S.H.B. 3613 77(R)BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisC.S.H.B. 3613 By: Martinez Fischer Criminal Jurisprudence 4/29/2001 Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Under current law, the court is required to sentence certain repeat offenders of public intoxication to probation, which includes substance abuse counseling. A court is authorized to sentence such an offender to jail only after the third conviction. There is concern that certain individuals who are sentenced to probation and fined do not have the resources to comply with the terms of the punishment. When an offender violates the terms of probation, probation is revoked and the offender is sent to jail. This situation may be inefficient as well as burdensome for judges, district attorneys, police officers, and probation officers who are forced to devote more time to cases in which the offender may have been better served with one jail sentence. C.S.H.B. 3613 authorizes, rather than requires, a court to suspend the imposition of a sentence and place a defendant convicted of disorderly conduct or public intoxication on community supervision. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. ANALYSIS C.S.H.B. 3613 amends the Code of Criminal Procedure to authorize, rather than require, a court, on conviction of an offense for which punishment is enhanced, to suspend the imposition of the sentence and place a defendant convicted of disorderly conduct or public intoxication on community supervision. The bill deletes the provision which provides that the requirement of a court to place a defendant on community supervision does not apply to a defendant who has previously been convicted of such an offense. EFFECTIVE DATE September 1, 2001. COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE C.S.H.B. 3613 modifies the original bill by authorizing a court to place a defendant convicted of public intoxication or disorderly conduct on community supervision. The original bill authorized a court, upon a showing of good cause, to sentence such a defendant to confinement in jail for a term not to exceed 180 days, rather than probation. The substitute deletes the provision which provides that the requirement of a court to place a defendant on community supervision does not apply to a defendant who has previously been convicted of such an offense.