The bill would amend the Code of Criminal Procedure by eliminating the possibility of judge ordered community supervision for a defendant convicted of the offense of injury to a child, elderly individual, or disabled individual, if the offense is punishable as a felony of the first degree and the victim of the offense is a child.  The bill would also require such defendants to not be eligible for release on parole until the defendant’s actual calendar time served, without consideration of good conduct time, equals one-half of the sentence or 30 calendar years, whichever is less, but in no event would the defendant be eligible for release on parole in less than two calendar years. 

A first degree felony is punishable by imprisonment in the institutional division for life or for any term of not more than 99 years or less than 5 years, or in addition to imprisonment, a fine not to exceed $10,000.

In fiscal year 2006, 107 admissions to prison were convicted of the offense of injury to a child, elderly individual, or disabled individual, punishable as a first degree felony.  For the 107 admissions it is not clear if the victim of the offense was a child, but the average sentence for all persons admitted for the offense was 23 years.  Also in fiscal year 2006, 48 offenders were released from prison for the offense of injury to a child, elderly individual, or disabled individual, punishable as a first degree felony.  It is not clear how many of the 48 offenders released committed their offense against a child; however, all such offenders served an average of 10 years in prison and served nearly 80% of their sentence before release.  Therefore, it is unlikely that this provision of the bill would have a significant impact on persons already sentence to prison for the offense identified in the proposal. 

In fiscal year 2006 there were 70 intakes to community supervision convicted of the offense of injury to a child, elderly individual, or disabled individual, punishable as a first degree felony.  Records indicate that 20 of the offenders committed their offense against a child and were ordered to community supervision by a judge.  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: