LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
Austin, Texas
 
CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT STATEMENT
 
82ND LEGISLATIVE REGULAR SESSION
 
April 4, 2011

TO:
Honorable Pete Gallego, Chair, House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence
 
FROM:
John S O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board
 
IN RE:
HB3176 by King, Susan (Relating to the prosecution of and punishment for the offense of failure to stop or report aggravated sexual assault of a child.), As Introduced

The bill would amend the Penal Code to provide that a person would be subject to the conditions related to the offense of failure to stop or report aggravated sexual assault of a child, regardless of whether the person has a relationship with a child. The bill would also amend the Penal Code to enhance the punishment prescribed for failure to stop or report aggravated sexual assault of a child, currently punishable as a Class A Misdemeanor, to a state jail felony.

 
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).
 
Expanding the list of behaviors for which a penalty is applied for any criminal offense 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 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. The impact of the bill on correctional populations would depend on how many persons would be prosecuted under the proposed statute compared to existing statute. In fiscal year 2010, less than 10 individuals were arrested, and less than 5 were placed on misdemeanor community supervision for failure to stop or report aggravated sexual assault of a child. 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.


Source Agencies:
LBB Staff:
JOB, GG, ADM