TO:	Honorable John Whitmire, Chair, Senate Committee on Criminal Justice
FROM:	Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:	SB549 by Williams (Relating to penalties for engaging in organized criminal activity.), As Introduced

The bill would amend the Government Code and Code of Criminal Procedure as they relate to the penalties for engaging in organized criminal activity. Under the provisions of the bill, offenders engaging in organized criminal activity would be ineligible for mandatory supervision release or release on parole until they served, without consideration of good-conduct time, at least one-half of their sentences or 30 years, whichever is less, but no less than two years.  The bill would also provide for enhancement of other offenses if the person was also engaging in organized criminal activity which could include a 15 year minimum term of confinement, and a 25 year minimum term of confinement for directing activities of criminal street gangs.

Among fiscal year 2012 prison releases, 584 offenders were incarcerated for organized criminal activity. Under the provisions of the bill, these offenders would be ineligible for release on parole until they served, without consideration of good-conduct time, at least one-half of their sentences or 30 years, whichever is less, but no less than two years. The number of offenders whose offenses would be enhanced as a result of engaging in organized criminal activity is indeterminate due to the unavailability of reliable data or information providing the level of detail necessary to identify which other offenses as outlined in the engaging in organized criminal activity statute were enhanced because the person was also engaging in organized criminal activity. Fiscal year 2012 releases did not include offenders whose offense was directing activities of criminal street gangs.  A review of on hand data indicates these offenders whose offense was directing activities of criminal street gangs have been sentenced to a term of incarceration greater than the 25 year minimum and would likely not be impacted by the provisions of the bill. It is assumed the bill would only affect those offenders released prior to this new minimum requirement for time served. Among fiscal year 2012 releases, the bill would impact 202 parolees and 116 mandatory supervision releases. Since the Board of Pardons and Paroles authorized the release of these offenders prior to the new minimum release date, it is assumed that the Board would approve these offenders to be released on the new minimum release date if the bill were implemented. For the 202 parolees, the average length of incarceration is expected to increase from 829 days (or 2.3 years) to 1,410 days (or 3.9 years). For the 116 mandatory supervision releases, the average length of incarceration is expected to increase from 807 days (or 2.2 years) to 867 days (or 2.4 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 the number of people incarcerated by or under the superivison of adult corrections agencies, is estimated as follows: