TO:	Honorable John Whitmire, Chair, Senate Committee on Criminal Justice
FROM:	John S. O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:	SB1118 by Ellis (Relating to community supervision for certain drug possession offenses and to a person's eligibility for an order of nondisclosure following a term of community supervision for any of those offenses.), As Introduced

The bill would amend the Code of Criminal Procedure and Government Code relating to community supervision for certain drug possession offenses.  The bill would require a judge to suspend the imposition of a sentence and place a defendant on community supervision for certain drug possession offenses.  The bill would also specify conditions in which the judge would not be required to suspend the sentence and place a defendant on community supervision.  A court granting community supervision as a result of the bill would require as a condition of community supervision that the defendant submit to an evidence-based risks and needs screening and evaluation procedure and, based on the evaluation, participate in a prescribed course of treatment in a program or facility and pay a fee to cover all or part of the cost of the treatment based on the defendant’s ability to pay.  The bill would specify revocation conditions for a defendant’s violation of the terms of community supervision relating to the revocation of supervision. 
 
The defendant would be required to pay a fee to cover all or part of the cost of the treatment based on the defendant’s ability to pay.
 
The bill would also require the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) to study and report to the Legislature on the effectiveness and financial impact to the state of the bill.
 
For fiscal year 2008, approximately 13,000 admissions to prison and state jail were for drug possession offenses punishable as a felony of the third degree or lower.  The bill specifies a number of conditions in which the judge would not be required to suspend the sentence and place a defendant on community supervision.  After excluding ineligible drug possession offenses, admissions with prior convictions of a felony offense other than drug possession, parole revocations for the current offense, community supervision revocations for the current offense, and those released on shock probation, 2,285 admissions would be affected by the provisions of the bill.  For this analysis, it is assumed 70 percent are state jail admissions and 30 percent are prison admissions.

Assuming 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: