Honorable Pete Gallego, Chair, House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence
FROM:
John S O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
SB841 by Patrick (Relating to the prosecution of and punishment for the offense of breach of computer security.), Committee Report 2nd 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 by making knowingly accessing a computer, computer network, or computer system without the effective consent of the owner a state jail felony if the defendant has been previously convicted two or more times, or it involves certain government property or critical infrastructure facility. The bill would also make certain breach of computer security committed with the intent to obtain a benefit, defraud or harm, or alter or damage property punishable at various felony levels, ranging from a felony of the third degree to a felony of the first degree, contingent upon the total dollar amount of the losses incurred or if it involves obtaining personal identifying information of another. Under current statute, the offense of breach of computer security is punishable as a Class B Misdemeanor; and punishment is enhanced to various levels, misdemeanor and felony, contingent upon the total dollar amount of the losses incurred.
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 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.
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 supervision in the community, 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. 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 20 individuals were arrested, less than 5 were admitted to state jail or prison, and less than 10 were placed on misdemeanor or felony community supervision for the offense of breach of computer security punishable at various misdemeanor and felony levels. 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.