Honorable Tommy Williams, Chair, Senate Committee on Transportation & Homeland Security
FROM:
John S O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
SB9 by Williams (Relating to homeland security, providing penalties.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted
The provisions of the bill that are the subject of this analysis are the provisions that would deal with criminal sanctions. The bill would amend the Code of Criminal Procedure to include engaging in organized criminal activity, and directing activities of criminal street gangs, to the list of offenses considered for award of good conduct time and parole. The bill would amend the Government Code to provide conditions for parole eligibility for engaging in organized criminal activity, and directing activities of criminal street gangs, based on the actual calendar time served of the sentence, without considering good conduct time, and in no event less than two calendar years. The bill would also amend the Government Code to prohibit an inmate from being released to mandatory supervision if the inmate is serving a sentence for, or has been previously convicted of a first degree felony for engaging in organized criminal activity, or directing activities of criminal street gangs. The bill would reenact Section 71.02 (b) and (c) of the Penal Code, as amended by Acts of the 73rd Legislature, 1993, relating to establishing the level of punishment for certain offenses involving engaging in organized criminal activity, or conspiring to commit such offense; the minimum time of imprisonment for an offense punishable as a felony of the first degree would be 15 years. The bill would amend the Penal Code by providing conditions for which the directing activities of criminal street gangs provision would apply, and by removing specifications in reference to certain "criminal street gang"; the offense would be punishable as a felony of the first degree, with a minimum time of imprisonment of 25 years. Under current statute, directing activities of certain criminal street gangs is punishable as a felony of the first degree.
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 second degree is punishable by confinement in prison for a term from 2 to 20 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 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. In the case of this bill, the impact on correctional populations would depend on how many persons would be prosecuted under the provisions of the bill, and the extent to which punishment would be enhanced under the proposed statute compared to existing statute. In fiscal year 2010, approximately 1,666 individuals were arrested for engaging in organized criminal activity punishable at various level, misdemeanor and felony; of those arrested in fiscal year 2010, less than 10 were convicted of a first degree felony and sentenced to a term of incarceration in prison or placed on felony community supervision. In fiscal year 2010, less than 5 individuals were arrested, admitted to prison, and placed on felony community supervision for directing activities of certain criminal street gangs. 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.