Honorable Terry Keel, Chair, House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence
FROM:
John S. O'Brien, Deputy Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB715 by Quintanilla (Relating to the punishment for credit card or debit card abuse committed against an elderly person.), As Introduced
The bill would amend the Penal Code by enhancing the punishment for the offense of credit card or debit card abuse from a state jail felony to a felony of the third degree if it is shown on the trial of the offense that in committing the offense the defendant defrauded or stole a credit card or debit card from an elderly individual. The bill would take effect September 1, 2005.
An elderly individual is defined as a person 65 years of age or older. The age of victims in credit card or debit card abuse cases in Texas is not known; however, elderly individuals are classified as a vulnerable victim group and are more susceptible to criminal acts. Recent national studies have indicated that elderly individuals account for about 56 percent of all victims of fraud crime activities. For the purposes of this analysis it is assumed that 56 percent of the 657 state jail admissions to TDCJ and 31 percent of the 879 probation placements for the offense identified by this bill would serve additional time incarcerated as third degree felons because their offenses involved persons 65 years of age or older. The bill affects a smaller percentage of the community supervision placements because it is assumed that many of the offenders that were sentenced to community supervision as state jail felons would also be sentenced to community supervision as third degree felons. This assumption is based on an analysis of offenders sentenced to community supervision and incarceration in fiscal year 2004 for offenses punishable as a felony of the third degree.
Assuming that sentencing patterns and release policies not addressed in this bill remain constant, the probable impact of implementing the provisions of the bill during each of the first five years following passage, in terms of daily demand upon the adult corrections agencies, is estimated as follows: