Honorable Pete Gallego, Chair, House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence
FROM:
John S O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB36 by Menendez (Relating to the punishment for and certain civil consequences of committing the offense of prostitution. ), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted
The bill would amend the Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure as it relates to the punishment for and certain civil consequences of committing the offense of prostitution. Under the provisions of the bill, prostitution would be enhanced to a Class A Misdemeanor for one or two previous convictions; a state jail felony for three or more previous convictions; or a third degree felony if the actor is the person who is to pay the fee or who solicits, and the person who is to receive the fee or who is solicited is younger than 17 years of age. At present, prostitution is punishable at the misdemeanor and felony level with the punishment dependent on the number of previous convictions; the punishment does not take into account the age of the person solicited. The bill would make the promotion of prostitution, currently punishable as a Class A Misdemeanor, a state jail felony for a previous conviction, or a third degree felony if the person who provides prostitution services or who the actor solicits is younger than 17 years of age. The bill would make the aggravated promotion of prostitution, currently punishable as a third degree felony, a second degree felony if it involves a prostitute who is younger than 17 years of age. The bill would also add a prostitution or promotion of prostitution offense enhanced to a third degree felony, or an aggravated promotion of prostitution offense enhanced to a second degree felony where the offense involves a person who is younger than 17 years of age, to the list of offenses for which sex offender registration is required.
A state jail felony is punishable by confinement in a state jail for a term from 180 days to 2 years and, in addition to confinement, an optional fine not to exceed $10,000 or Class A Misdemeanor punishment (mandatory post conviction community supervision). A felony of the third degree is punishable by confinement in prison for a term from 2 to 10 years and, in addition to confinement, an optional fine not to exceed $10,000. A felony of the second degree is punishable by confinement in prison for a term from 2 to 20 years and, in addition to confinement, an optional 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 jail, state jail 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. In fiscal year 2010, approximately 1,423 individuals were arrested for prostitution (1,385 Class B Misdemeanor, 32 Class A Misdemeanor, and 6 state jail felony); of those arrested, approximately 195 were placed on misdemeanor community supervision. In fiscal year 2010, approximately 71 individuals were arrested for promotion of prostitution punishable as a Class A Misdemeanor; of those arrested, less than 5 were placed on misdemeanor community supervision. In fiscal year 2010, approximately 24 individuals were arrested for aggravated promotion of prostitution punishable as a third degree felony; of those arrested, less than 5 were admitted to prison. Although the number of offenders who engaged in prostitution, promotion of prostitution, or aggravated promotion of prostitution where the offense involved a person younger than 17 years of age is unknown, it is assumed 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.