The provisions of the bill addressing felony sanctions for criminal offenses are the subject of this analysis. The bill would amend the Health and Safety Code to indicate the offense of possession of less than one gram of a Penalty Group 1 controlled substance must be a usable quantity of more than 0.02 grams but less than one gram. Under current law, this offense is a state jail felony.

In fiscal year 2014, 30,660 people were arrested, 7,700 people were placed on felony community supervision, and 8,562 people were admitted to the state correctional institutions for possession of less than one gram of a controlled substance in Penalty Group 1. 

Narrowing the range of amounts possessed for which a criminal penalty is applied is expected to result in decreased demands upon the correctional resources of counties or of the state due to shorter terms of probation or shorter terms of confinement in state correctional institutions. Whether the bill would result in a significant amount of savings to the state as a result of a correctional population reduction is indeterminate due to a lack of statewide data that would enable the identification of those cases in which the amount of Penalty Group 1 substance possessed was 0.02 grams or less from all other possession of a Penalty Group 1 controlled substance cases.