Honorable Tan Parker, Chair, House Committee on Corrections
FROM:
Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB256 by Miles (Relating to mandatory supervision for certain inmates sentenced following violation of a condition of community supervision.), As Introduced
The bill would amend the Government Code as it relates to mandatory supervision for certain inmates sentenced following a violation of a condition of community supervision (probation). Under the provisions of the bill, certain felons whose deferred adjudication probation case was revoked as a result of a technical violation of the conditions of probation would be automatically released to mandatory supervision once the offender's time served plus good time equals the offender's sentence length.
Allowing for the automatic release of offenders to mandatory supervision is expected to result in decreased demands upon the correctional resources of the state due to shorter terms of confinement in prison. In fiscal year 2012, there were 48,069 felony probation case revocations to prison for a technical violation belonging to approximately 28,506 people. After removing those cases not classified as deferred adjudication probation cases at revocation, those cases in which the offenses make it ineligible because of the provisions of the bill, and those cases in which the offense is ineligible for release to mandatory supervision, approximately 19,628 felony probation case revocations belonging to 12,850 people would be subject to the provisions of the bill.
The bill may have a net positive impact by decreasing the number of people incarcerated within state correctional institutions and increasing the number of people released to parole supervision under the mandatory supervision provision. Whether the bill would result in a significant impact to the state is indeterminate due to a lack of statewide data on the number of offenders whose probation case has been revoked for a technical violation, have been sentenced to a term of incarceration, and been denied release to parole supervision under the mandatory supervision provision. At present data do not exist that would enable the identification of those cases in which offenders whose probation case has been revoked for a technical, have been sentenced to a term of incarceration, and been denied release to parole supervision under the mandatory supervision provision from all other cases in which release to parole supervision under the mandatory supervision provision was denied.