Honorable Terry Keel, Chair, House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence
FROM:
John S. O'Brien, Deputy Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB1074 by Brown, Betty (Relating to the punishment for the offense of obscenity.), As Introduced
The bill would amend the Penal Code by adding to the conditions for specifying the penalty grade for obscenity offenders. Depending on the conditions of the offense, obscenity is punishable as a Class A misdemeanor, state jail felony, or a felony of the third degree.
A Class A misdemeanor is punishable by confinement in county jail for a term not to exceed one year, a fine not to exceed $4,000, or both fine and imprisonment.
A state jail felony is punishable by confinement in a state jail for any term of not more than two years or less than 180 days, or, in addition to confinement, a fine not to exceed $10,000.
A third degree felony is punishable by imprisonment in the institutional division for any term of not more than 10 years or less than 2 years, or in addition to confinement, a fine not to exceed $10,000.
For fiscal year 2004, there were fewer than 20 community supervision placements or admissions to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) for the offense of obscenity. Therefore, it is assumed that the number of offenders convicted under this statute would not result in a significant impact on the programs and workload of state corrections agencies.