| TO: | Honorable Jerry Madden, Chair, House Committee on Corrections |
| FROM: | John S O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | HB3538 by Thompson ( Relating to the release of certain inmates on medically recommended intensive supervision or on super-intensive supervision parole. |
| Fiscal Year | Probable Net Positive/(Negative) Impact to General Revenue Related Funds |
|---|---|
| 2012 | $1,554,590 |
| 2013 | $1,953,481 |
| 2014 | $2,760,008 |
| 2015 | $3,341,163 |
| 2016 | $3,743,066 |
| Fiscal Year | Probable Savings/(Cost) from General Revenue Fund 1 |
|---|---|
| 2012 | $1,554,590 |
| 2013 | $1,953,481 |
| 2014 | $2,760,008 |
| 2015 | $3,341,163 |
| 2016 | $3,743,066 |
Under the provisions of the bill, the Board of Pardons and Paroles would be required (BPP) to release on super-intensive supervision an elderly inmate, defined as 65 years of age or older, who reaches parole eligibility and is not serving a sentence for a offenses specified by the provisions of the bill (a violent offense, certain sex offenses, and certain organized crime offenses), or is subject to a major disciplinary action within the 12-month period preceding the inmate's scheduled release date, who have not been reclassified by the department to a less favorable classification, or who is considered by the department to be a high-risk for or very high risk of unsuccessful reentry into the community following release from the department. The bill would also require the BPP to release on medically recommended intensive supervision certain inmates who has been identified by the Texas Correctional Office on Offenders with Medical or Mental Impairments (TCOOMMI) through an examination by at least two physicians, as being terminally ill, requiring long-term care, being in a persistent vegetative state, or having an organic brain syndrome with significant to total mobility impairment unless the inmate is sentenced to death or life without parole. Inmates whose conditions existed at the time of sentencing and had not deteriorated or who were serving a sentence for an offense excluded based on the bill would not be eligible for release onto medically recommended intensive supervision. Under the provisions of the bill, the BPP would be allowed to consider 3g offenders and sex offenders for release to discretionary medically recommended intensive supervision. The bill would also permit the BPP to release on discretionary medically recommended intensive supervision an inmate who has been identified by TCOOMMI through an examination by at least two physicians as being elderly, having a physical disability, or being a person with a mental illness or mental retardation.
Requiring the automatic release of offenders is expected to result in decreased demands upon the correctional resources of the State due to shorter terms of confinement in prison. In fiscal year 2010, the BPP considered 96,451 cases (77,540 cases for release to parole supervision and 18,911 cases for release to discretionary mandatory supervision) for release to parole supervision. Of those cases reviewed, 62,920 were denied release (53,416 cases for release to parole supervision and 9,504 cases for release to discretionary mandatory supervision). After removing those cases for inmates younger than 65 and those ineligible for release as outlined in the provisions of the bill there were 208 offenders who would have been released to super-intensive supervision parole during the first year as a result of the bill. In fiscal year 2010, there were 7 offenders who would have been eligible for release to medically recommended intensive supervision as a result of the bill.
In order to estimate the future impact, the proposed conditions of the bill are applied in a simulation model to a prison population that reflects the distribution of offenses, sentence lengths, and time served. Savings of incarceration by the Department of Criminal Justice are estimated on the basis of $45.00 per inmate per day for prison facilities, reflecting approximate costs of either operating facilities or contracting with other entities. Costs of supervision by the Department of Criminal Justice’s parole division are estimated on the basis of $25.19 per day per offender on super-intensive parole supervision.
It is likely an additional number of currently incarcerated inmates would be released earlier as a result of the bill but the number and the savings realized would be contingent on the number of inmates who were 65 or older, who were not subject to disciplinary action within the last 12 months, who also were incarcerated for parole eligible offenses on the effective date of the bill, and the ability of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to process offenders for release.
| Source Agencies: | 696 Department of Criminal Justice, 697 Board of Pardons and Paroles
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| LBB Staff: | JOB, LM, ESi, GG, AI
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