The bill would amend the Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure and Government Code as it relates to the offense of assault involving family violence.  Under the provisions of the bill persons convicted three or more times for this offense would be subject to a second degree felony whereas under current law they are subject to a third degree felony.  The bill also provides that offenders meeting these conditions who are placed on community supervision would be sent to prison for two to twenty years.  Offenders meeting these conditions who are sent to prison would not be eligible to be release to parole supervision until their actual time served (without consideration of good conduct time) equals one-half of the sentence or 30 calendar years, whichever is less, but no less than two calendar years.

A third degree felony is punishable by confinement in prison for a term of two to ten years and, in addition to confinement, an optional fine not to exceed $10,000. A second degree felony is punishable by confinement in prison for a term of two to twenty years and, in addition to confinement, an optional fine not to exceed $10,000.

 
Among fiscal year 2012 prison releases, 1,422 offenders were incarcerated for assault involving family violence. For 228 of these prisoners, the bill's provisions would have set their initial parole eligibility date after the date of their actual release in fiscal year 2012. It is assumed that the bill would only affect these prisoners. Since the Board of Pardons and Paroles (BPP) approved these prisoners to be released to parole or mandatory supervision before the new parole eligibility date (as set by the bill's provisions), it is assumed that the BPP would release these prisoners to parole on their new parole eligibility date. Therefore, in this analysis, each of the 228 prisoners were assigned a new parole eligibility date based on the bill's provisions and were assumed to be released on that date. The new length of stay was calculated for each prisoner and compared against their actual length of stay. The new average length of stay for these prisoners would be 841 days (2.3) years while the actual average length of stay for these prisoners was 437 days (1.2 years) in fiscal year 2012. The bill's provisions would thereby increase the average length of stay by 404 days (or 1.1 years).

In order to estimate the future impact of the bill, the proposed conditions of the bill have been analyzed using recent trends observed in populations released from prison for these offenses. 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: