Honorable Pete Gallego, Chair, House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence
FROM:
John S O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB690 by Martinez Fischer (Relating to the punishment for the offense of graffiti.), As Introduced
The bill would amend the Penal Code by adding historic structures or property to the list of places for which the offense of graffiti would be punishable as a state jail felony if the amount of pecuniary loss is less than $20,000. Under current statute graffiti is punishable at both misdemeanor and felony levels and is contingent upon the total dollar amount of the damage. Under the provisions of the bill, graffiti offenses currently punishable as Class B or A Misdemeanors, with damages less than $1,500 would be punishable as a state jail felony if the item damaged was an historic structure or property.
A Class B Misdemeanor is punishable by confinement in county jail for a term not to exceed 180 days and/or a fine not to exceed $2,000. 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).
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 jails or prison. In fiscal year 2010, there were approximately 380 persons placed on adult community supervision (130 felony and 250 misdemeanor), approximately 53 persons admitted to state jail, and approximately 1 admitted to prison for the offense of graffiti. In fiscal year 2010, it is estimated there were approximately 250 persons placed on misdemeanor community supervision for the offense of graffiti currently punishable as a misdemeanor (155 Class B and 95 Class A). The number of times the offense of graffiti is committed on historic structures or property is unknown; however, it would be a subset of graffiti offenses. For this analysis 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.