The provisions of the bill addressing felony sanctions are the subject of this analysis. The bill would amend the Penal Code as it relates to the punishment for the offense of burglary of a vehicle or rail car and to grants of community supervision to persons who commit the offense. The bill would align the punishment for burglary of a vehicle or rail car to the amount of pecuniary loss of tangible personal property and create new punishment levels based on the specific circumstances of the offense. Under the provisions of the bill, burglary of a vehicle or rail car would be punishable at all felony degrees with the punishment degree based on the specific circumstances of the offense.

A first degree felony is punishable by confinement in prison for life or 5 to 99 years, a second degree felony for 2 to 20 years, a third degree felony for 2 to 10 years, and a state jail felony is punishable by confinement in a state jail for 180 days to two years. In addition to confinement all felony level offenses are subject to an optional fine not to exceed $10,000.

Creating a new penalty for any criminal offense is expected to result in increased demands upon the correctional resources of counties or of the state due to longer terms of probation or longer terms of confinement in state correctional facilities. Adding additional conditions to a provision for an existing criminal offense is expected to result in decreased demands upon the correctional resources of counties or of the state due to fewer placements under felony community supervision or fewer admissions into state correctional facilities. In fiscal year 2014, 343 people were arrested, 51 were placed under felony community supervision, and 234 were admitted into state correctional institutions for burglary of a vehicle. In fiscal year 2014, 11 people were arrested, fewer than 10 were placed under felony community supervision, and fewer than 10 were admitted into state correctional institutions for burglary of a rail car. This analysis assumes the provisions of the bill would not result in a significant impact on state correctional populations, programs, or workloads.