TO:	Honorable John Whitmire, Chair, Senate Committee on Criminal Justice
FROM:	John S O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:	SB1076 by Ellis (Relating to community supervision for certain drug possession offenses and to a person's eligibility for an order of nondisclosure following a term of community supervision for any of those offenses.), As Introduced

The bill would amend the Code of Criminal Procedure and Government Code relating to community supervision for certain drug possession offenses.  The bill would require a judge to suspend the imposition of a sentence and place a defendant on community supervision for certain drug possession offenses.  The bill would also specify conditions in which the judge would not be required to suspend the sentence and place a defendant on community supervision.  A court granting community supervision as a result of the bill would require as a condition of community supervision that the defendant submit to an evidence-based risks and needs screening and evaluation procedure and, based on the evaluation, participate in a prescribed course of treatment in a program or facility and pay a fee to cover all or part of the cost of the treatment based on the defendant’s ability to pay.  The bill would specify revocation conditions for a defendant’s violation of the terms of community supervision relating to the revocation of supervision.  The bill would also repeal certain section of the Code of Criminal Procedure relating to state jail felony community superivsion.
 
Requiring offenders be placed on felony community superivsion instead of confined in sate jail or incarcerated in prison is expected to result in decreased demands upon the correctional resources of the State due to shorter terms of confinement in prison or state jail. In fiscal year 2010, there were 107,787 arrests for the drug offenses addressed in the provisions of the bill.  Of those arrested in fiscal year 2010, 2,538 resulted in admissions to prison, 2,679 resulted in admissions to state jail, 7,185 resulted in placements on felony community supervision, and 13,268 resulted in placements on misdemeanor community superivsion for the drug offenses addressed in the provisions of the bill. The bill specifies a number of conditions in which the judge would not be required to suspend the sentence and place a defendant on community supervision.  After excluding ineligible drug possession offenses, admissions with prior convictions of a felony offense other than drug possession, parole revocations for the current offense, community supervision revocations for the current offense, and those released on shock probation, approximately 862 admissions to prison and approximately 914 admissions to state jail would be subject to the provisions of the bill. 

Assuming sentencing patterns and release policies not addressed in this bill remain constant, the probable impact of implementing the provisions of the bill during each of the first five years following passage, in terms of daily demand upon the adult corrections agencies, is estimated as follows: