| TO: | Honorable John Whitmire, Chair, Senate Committee on Criminal Justice |
| FROM: | Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | SB1712 by Rodríguez (Relating to the punishment for the offense of prostitution.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted |
The bill would amend the Penal Code as it relates to the punishment for the offense of prostitution. Under the provisions of the bill, the punishment for prostitution would be based on the number of previous convictions and whether the person received or paid a fee.
Increasing the number of previous convictions required before a specific criminal penalty can be applied is expected to result in decreased demands upon the correctional resources of counties and or of the state due to shorter terms of probation, or longer terms of confinement in county jail, state jail or prison. For this analysis it is assumed implementing the provisions of the bill would not result in a significant impact on the programs and workload of state corrections agencies or on the demand for resources of those agencies.
The Harris County Sheriff's Office reported that there would be new costs associated with minimum terms of confinement in county jails that would be offset by savings associated with elevating some cases to felonies, which would require these defendants to be housed on state jails. The net impact of the bill is not anticipated to be significant for Harris County.
The Comal County Sheriff's Office and the Travis County Sheriff's Office also anticipate no significant fiscal impact.
| Source Agencies: |
| LBB Staff: | UP, ESi, GG, LM, KKR
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