Honorable John Whitmire, Chair, Senate Committee on Criminal Justice
FROM:
John S O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
SB146 by Hinojosa (Relating to the offense of smuggling of persons and unlawful transport of an individual; 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 Penal Code to change the offense of unlawful transport of persons for pecuniary benefit to smuggling of persons; the offense would be punishable as a state jail felony except that it would be punishable as a felony of the third degree if committed for pecuniary benefit or if there is substantial likelihood that the transported individual will suffer serious bodily injury or death. Under current statute, the offense of unlawful transport of persons for pecuniary benefit is punishable as a state jail felony. The bill would also add the smuggling of persons to the list of offenses for which the engaging in organized criminal activity provision is applied. Engaging in organized criminal activity is punishable at various felony levels and is based on the level of the offense the person committed or conspired to commit.
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.
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 fiscal year 2010, less than 20 individuals were arrested, and less than 5 were admitted to state jail or placed on community supervision for the offense of unlawful transport of persons for pecuniary benefit. Although the number of persons who would be prosecuted under the proposed statute is unknown, 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. It is expected that individuals who would be affected by the provision of this bill are currently being sentenced for other offenses.