TO:	Honorable John Whitmire, Chair, Senate Committee on Criminal Justice
FROM:	John S. O'Brien, Deputy Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:	HB2193 by Madden (Relating to the operation of a system of community supervision.), As Engrossed

The bill would amend sections of the Code of Criminal Procedure relating to the maximum period of community supervision, dismissal and discharge of defendants prior to the expiration of a term of deferred adjudication or community supervision, and the credit of time served by a defendant in certain correctional facilities while on community supervision.  The bill would authorize the establishment of drug courts and require counties with a population of 200,000 or more to establish a drug court program if the county receives federal or state funding.  The bill would also require the Community Justice Assistance Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to establish a prison diversion pilot program that provides grants to selected departments for the implementation of a system of progressive sanctions.   
 
The bill would limit the maximum period of community supervision for a felony of the third degree to five years, unless it is a third degree offense that is violent as defined by Section 3g of the Code of Criminal Procedure, or requires registration as a sex offender. The maximum period of community supervision for a state jail felony would remain at five years.  The maximum period of community supervision would continue to be 10 years for Section 3g violent offenders, offenders requiring sex offender registration, and offenders with offenses punishable as first or second degree felonies.  It would take more than five years for the full reduction in the community supervision population to be achieved since this provision would only apply to third degree felony offenders placed on community supervision on or after September 1, 2005.  It is assumed that no fiscal impact would be realized in the first two years of implementation of this provision.   
 
The bill would also require a judge to review a defendant’s record and consider whether to terminate the period of community supervision on completion of one-half of the original community supervision period.  The bill would allow a state jail felon to be considered for early termination, which is not permissible under current law.  Currently, 5 percent of all community supervision terminations are terminated early as a result of a judge’s review.  If judges are required to review all eligible cases for early termination, as defined by the bill, a considerably larger number of defendants on community supervision could be released early from supervision.  For fiscal year 2004, 50 percent of defendants released from community supervision completed more than one-half of their original community supervision periods and could therefore, benefit from this provision.  For this analysis it is assumed that for first, second and third degree felony community supervision placements, the judge review requirement would result in a 10 percent increase in community supervision terminations in fiscal year 2006 and a 5 percent increase in terminations in subsequent fiscal years.  For state jail felony community supervision placements, it is assumed that the judge review requirement would result in a 5 percent increase in community supervision terminations in fiscal year 2006 and a 2 percent increase in terminations in subsequent fiscal years.  The higher percent increase in community supervision terminations in fiscal year 2006 is attributed to the large number of defendants on community supervision as of September 1, 2005 that have exceeded the proposed review timeline criteria established by the bill.
 
In order to estimate the future impact of the bill, the changes proposed for admission and release policies are applied in simulation models, to estimate the decrease in the number of people on community supervision resulting from the proposed reduction in maximum periods of community supervision, and decreased prison admissions due to fewer probation revocations. 
 
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:

Source Agencies:

LBB Staff:

JOB, GG