Honorable John Whitmire, Chair, Senate Committee on Criminal Justice
FROM:
John S. O'Brien, Deputy Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
SB1266 by Whitmire (Relating to the exercise of judicial discretion with respect to the administration of community supervision.), As Introduced
The bill would amend the Code of Criminal Procedure relating to the period of community supervision, the jurisdiction period of a court over an offender sentenced to imprisonment, conditions of community supervision, eligibility for community supervision as an alternative to imprisonment, suspension of the imposition of a sentence for certain drug offenses, reduction or termination of community supervision, and the credit of time served on community supervision towards a term of confinement an offender is sentenced to serve.
It is assumed that no reduction in the community supervision population would be realized in the first two years of implementation. It would take more than five years for the full reduction in community supervision population to be achieved because it is assumed that this proposal would only apply to offenders placed on community supervision on or after September 1, 2005. The impact from this analysis would be realized by the reduction in the maximum period of community supervision from ten years to five years. It is assumed that a reduction in the community supervision population will result in a decrease of future community supervision revocations to prison. It is also assumed that probationers who have been revoked to prison for a technical violation serve an average of 2.7 years before release. Provisions of the bill eliminating the requirement that defendants complete one-third of the original community supervision period, and allowing a judge to credit time a defendant served on community supervision towards a term of confinement a defendant is sentenced to serve could further add to savings from the bill depending on the extent to which the provisions would be applied, savings from this provision are also not included in this analysis. Conversely, removing the requirement for mandatory probation for certain state jail offenses could offset savings depending on the extent that judges sentence offenders to additional time in state jail facilities.
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: