The provision of the bill that is the subject of this analysis would amend the Occupations Code by changing the punishment for violating the subchapter of the Occupations Code relating to selling metal to secondhand metal dealers to a felony of the third degree, or a felony of the second degree if the person has previously been convicted of a violation in the preceding 24 months.  Under current law, violations relating to selling metal to secondhand metal dealers are punishable as a Class B misdemeanor, or a Class A misdemeanor if the offender has been convicted of a violation in the previous 36 months. 

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 third degree felony is punishable by imprisonment in the institutional division for any term of not more than ten years or less than two years, or, in addition to imprisonment, a fine not to exceed $10,000.

A second degree felony is punishable by imprisonment in the institutional division for any term of not more than 20 years or less than 2 years, or, in addition to confinement, a fine not to exceed $10,000.

Increasing the penalty for any criminal offense is expected to result in increased demands upon the correctional resources of counties or of the State due to longer terms of probation, or, longer terms of confinement in county jails or prison. When an offense is changed from a misdemeanor to a felony, there is a transfer of the burden of confinement of convicted offenders from the counties to the State. The impact of the bill on correctional populations would depend on how many persons would be prosecuted under the provisions of the bill, and the extent to which punishment would be enhanced under the proposed statute compared to existing statute.  For this analysis 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 or on the demand for resources and services of those agencies.