TO:	Honorable Abel Herrero, Chair, House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence
FROM:	Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:	HB1570 by White, James (Relating to the punishment for the offense of burglary.), As Introduced

The provisions of the bill addressing felony sanctions are the subject of this analysis.  The bill would amend the Penal Code by increasing the punishment for the offense of burglary of a building from a state jail felony to a third degree felony. Increasing the penalty for any offense is expected to result in increased demands upon the correctional resources of the state due to longer terms of felony community supervision, longer terms of confinement in state correctional institutions, and additional persons under parole supervision. In fiscal year 2014, 5,283 persons were arrested, 1,039 were placed under felony community supervision, and 1,445 were admitted into state correctional institutions for burglary of a building.  In order to estimate the future impact of the bill's provisions, the average length of stay for those with a state jail felony burglary of a building offense was compared to the average length of stay for those with a third degree felony property offense. The differences in lengths of stay were used to estimate costs associated with implementing the bill's provisions. The average length of stay for those released from state jail in fiscal year 2014 was approximately seven months compared to 19 months in prison for third degree felony property offenders. The average length of stay for offenders whose state jail felony community supervision ended in fiscal year 2014 was approximately three years compared to four years for third degree felony property offenders. This analysis assumes the bill's provisions would reach partial implementation for fiscal year 2016 and reach full implementation in fiscal years 2017 and beyond. 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: