Honorable Pete Gallego, Chair, House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence
FROM:
John S O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB1121 by Weber (Relating to the prosecution and punishment of certain offenses involving trafficking of persons.), As Introduced
The bill would amend various sections of the Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure, and the Government Code to create the offense of continuous trafficking of persons. Under the provisions of the bill, continuous trafficking of persons would be punishable as a first degree felony punishable by imprisonment in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for life or for any term of not more than 99 years or less than 25 years. Under the provisions of the bill, punishment for a state jail felony would be enhanced to third degree felony if the offender had been previously convicted of continuous trafficking of persons. The bill would also add continuous trafficking of persons to the list of offenses for which bond can only be granted by a judge, a DNA sample is required, and for which life without parole is automatic upon subsequent conviction. Such offenders would not be eligible for: release to mandatory supervision, parole supervision, intensive supervision parole, placement in a halfway house, judge ordered community supervision, jury recommended community supervision, and deferred adjudication community supervision.
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 first degree is punishable by confinement in prison for life or a term from 5 to 99 years and, in addition to confinement, an optional fine not to exceed $10,000.
Expanding the list of offenses for which a penalty is applied or 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, less than ten persons were arrested, admitted to prison, or placed on felony community supervision for offenses involving or related to the trafficking of persons. 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.