| TO: | Honorable Abel Herrero, Chair, House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence |
| FROM: | Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | HB1748 by Branch (Relating to the punishment for defendants who commit certain aggravated sexual assaults.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted |
The bill would amend the Penal Code as it relates to the punishment for aggravated sexual assault. Under current law aggravated sexual assault is punishable as a first degree felony. If the victim was under six years old or if the victim was less than 14 years old and the offense occurred in a certain manner, the offense is punishable as a first degree felony and the minimum term of imprisonment is 25 years. Under the provisions of the bill the same circumstances that make this offense punishable as a first degree felony with a minimum term of imprisonment of 25 years would now make that offense punishable by life or a term of 25 to 99 years if the defendant was 17 years old or younger at the time of the offense. If the defendant was 18 years or older and the offense was committed under these same circumstances, the offense would be punished by life without the possibility of parole. Under this provision of the bill, it is expected that any impact on offenders' length of incarceration would not significantly impact state correctional agencies' workload and programs within the first five years of the bill's implementation. In subsequent years, the bill's fiscal impact may increase as additional offenders are subject to the bill's provisions; this is dependent on the frequency with which the penalty is employed.
Under the provisions of the bill, the offense of aggravated sexual assault would be punishable by life without parole if the victim was 14 to 16 years old, suffered serious bodily injury, and the defendant was at least 18 years old at the time of the offense.
These circumstances are currently punishable as a first degree felony with the possibility of parole.
A first-degree felony 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 punishment for an offense is expected to result in increased demands upon the correctional resources of the state due to longer terms of confinement in prison. Whether the bill would result in a significant amount of cost to the state is indeterminate due to a lack of statewide data on the number of persons sent to prison for aggravated sexual assault whose victims were 14 to 16 years old and suffered serious bodily injury as a result of the offense.
In fiscal year 2012, a total of 3,113 people were arrested; 284 people were placed on felony community supervision; and 968 were admitted to the correctional institutions division for aggravated sexual assault. In fiscal year 2012, a total of 701 offenders were released from prison for the offense of aggravated sexual assault. Of those 701, the average length of stay was 6.8 years. At present, data do not exist that would enable the identification of those cases in which persons were sent to prison for aggravated sexual assault and whose victims were 14 to 16 years old and suffered serious bodily injury as a result of the offense.
| Source Agencies: |
| LBB Staff: | UP, ESi, GG, JPo
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