Honorable John Whitmire, Chair, Senate Committee on Criminal Justice
FROM:
John S O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB290 by Jackson, Jim (Relating to the punishment for the offense of employment harmful to children. ), Committee Report 2nd House, Substituted
The bill would amend the Penal Code to make the offense of employment harmful to children punishable as a state jail felony if the defendant has been previously convicted one time, and a felony of the third degree if the defendant has been previously convicted two or more times for the offense. The offense is currently punishable as a Class A Misdemeanor.
A Class A Misdemeanor is punishable by confinement in county jail for a term not to exceed one year and/or a fine not to exceed $4,000. 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.
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 and/or supervision of convicted offenders from the counties to the State. In fiscal year 2010, less than five offenders were arrested and less than five offenders were placed on misdemeanor community supervision for employment harmful to children; therefore, it is assumed the number of offenders convicted under this statute would not result in a significant impact on programs and workload of state corrections agencies or on the demand for resources and services of those agencies.