Honorable Pete Gallego, Chair, House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence
FROM:
John S O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB1937 by Simpson (Relating to the offensive touching of persons seeking access to public buildings and transportation; providing penalties.), As Introduced
The bill would amend the Penal Code as it relates to offensive touching of persons seeking access to public buildings and transportation. The provisions of the bill that create new punishment or enhance existing punishment for criminal offenses are the subject of this analysis. Under the provisions of the bill, certain touching of persons as part of a search performed to grant access to a publicly accessible building or form of transportation, intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly without probable cause to believe the person committed an offense would be a state jail felony.
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).
Expanding the list of offenses for which a penalty is applied 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. 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.