The provisions of the bill addressing felony sanctions are the subject of this analysis. The bill would amend the Code of Criminal Procedure to add abduction of a child younger than 18 to the list of offenses with a  statute of limitations of ten years from the 18th birthday of the victim of the offense. Under current law the statute of limitations for this offense is five years.  The bill would also amend the Penal Code to add abduction of a child younger than 18 to the circumstances which constitute aggravated kidnapping.  Under current law, kidnapping without regard to the victim's age, is a third degree felony. Aggravated kidnapping is punishable as a first or second degree felony with the punishment based on the specific circumstances of the offense.

A first degree felony is punishable by confinement in prison for life or five to 99 years, a second degree felony for two to 20 years, and a third degree felony for two to ten years. In addition to confinement certain felony level offenses are subject to an optional fine not to exceed $10,000.

Enhancing the punishment for an offense and increasing the statute of limitations is expected to result in greater demands on the correctional resources of the state due to additional people potentially placed under felony community supervision or admitted into state correctional institutions. In fiscal year 2014, 150 people were arrested, 38 were placed under felony community supervision, and 50 were admitted into state correctional institutions for the offense of kidnapping. A statewide repository containing the level of detail necessary to isolate those individuals who kidnapped a child younger than 18 from all other individuals convicted of kidnapping is not currently available. However, this analysis assumes the provisions of the bill would not result in a significant impact on state correctional populations, programs, or workloads.