The provisions of the bill addressing felony sanctions are the subject of this analysis. The bill would 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 all felony level offenses are subject to an optional fine not to exceed $10,000.

Enhancing the punishment for an offense is expected to increase demands on state and/or county correctional agency resources due to more people under community supervision and in 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 agencies, programs, or workloads.