LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
Austin, Texas
FISCAL NOTE, 77th Regular Session
April 30, 2001
TO: Honorable Juan Hinojosa, Chair, House Committee on
Criminal Jurisprudence
FROM: John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE: HB3114 by Ritter (Relating to the continuation or
modification of community supervision for certain
defendants.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted
**************************************************************************
* Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for *
* HB3114, Committee Report 1st House, Substituted: negative impact *
* of $(26,575,642) through the biennium ending August 31, 2003. *
**************************************************************************
General Revenue-Related Funds, Five-Year Impact:
****************************************************
* Fiscal Year Probable Net Positive/(Negative) *
* Impact to General Revenue Related *
* Funds *
* 2002 $(13,881,486) *
* 2003 (12,694,156) *
* 2004 (12,121,956) *
* 2005 (12,121,956) *
* 2006 (12,121,956) *
****************************************************
All Funds, Five-Year Impact:
*****************************************************
* Fiscal Year Probable Savings/(Cost) from *
* General Revenue Fund *
* 0001 *
* 2002 $(13,881,486) *
* 2003 (12,694,156) *
* 2004 (12,121,956) *
* 2005 (12,121,956) *
* 2006 (12,121,956) *
*****************************************************
Fiscal Analysis
The bill would amend the Code of Criminal Procedure by allowing felony
offenders other than state jail felony offenders to be confined in state
jail facilities upon modification of community supervision. The bill
would apply to certain nonviolent offenders and the period of confinement
in a state jail felony facility would be for a period of not less than
60 days or more than one year.
The change in law made by this Act would apply to a person on community
supervision on or after September 1, 2001, regardless of the date on
which the defendant was placed on community supervision.
Methodology
It is assumed that the bill would impact four groups of felony offenders,
other than state jail felony cases: (1) regular community supervision
placements; (2) defendants on community supervision with a motion to
revoke; (3) prison admissions; and (4) persons on community supervision
given county jail time as a modification of their sentence.
For the purposes of this analysis, it is assumed that of regular
community supervision placements that this newly created sanction would
be imposed upon 100 felony placements per month statewide as a condition
of community supervision. The 100 felony placements would spend an
average period of confinement of six months in a state jail facility.
It is estimated that 2,500 motions to revoke community supervision are
issued each month for felony offenders, other than those convicted of
state jail felony offenses. For the purposes of this analysis it is
assumed that 5% (125) offenders would be submitted to a period of
confinement for an average period of six months as an alternative to
revocation.
It is also assumed that 100 felony offenders per month that would have
otherwise been sentenced to a prison term, if not for the provisions of
this bill, would be placed in a state jail facility for a period of one
year and then placed on community supervision as an alternative to direct
prison admission and subsequently released on parole supervision.
Based on an analysis of community supervision revocations by the Criminal
Justice Policy Council (CJPC) that was not available for the introduced
version of House Bill 3114, 6,900 non-state jail felony probationers were
given county jail time of up to 180 days as a condition of probation
modification for fiscal year 2000. Of the 6,900 individuals that received
county jail time as a modification, 55% were given a modification period
of greater than 60 days. In this analysis it is assumed that 3,795 (55%
of 6,900) individuals who would have received county jail time as a
modification of their community supervision would now receive, on
average, 120 days of modification time in a state jail as a result of
this bill.
The degree to which judges use the sentencing alternatives proposed by
this bill could change the fiscal implications of the bill.
Costs of incarceration by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice are
estimated on the basis of $40 per inmate per day for prison facilities,
$32.08 per day for state jail facilities. The daily cost of parole
supervision is $2.85 per day and the state cost for community
supervision of $1.01 per day based on information from the Criminal
Justice Policy Council.
Local Government Impact
For the purposes of this analysis, it is assumed that 3,795 individuals
per year on community supervision will be required to serve modification
time in state jail facilities rather than in county jails. Annual
savings to local county jails ranging from $12.9 million to $14.8
million would result from such a shift in incarceration responsibility.
Source Agencies: 410 Criminal Justice Policy Council
LBB Staff: JK, JC, GG