Honorable Joe Moody, Chair, House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence
FROM:
Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB591 by Minjarez (Relating to the punishment for the offense of aggravated assault.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted
The provisions of the bill that are the subject of this analysis would amend the Penal Code as it relates to the offense of aggravated assault. Under the provisions of the bill, certain aggravated assault offenses would be enhanced from a second degree felony to a first degree felony if the actor's conduct resulted in paralysis of the victim.
A first degree felony is punishable by confinement in prison for life or a term from 5 to 99 years and a second degree felony is punishable by confinement in prison for a term from 2 to 20 years. In addition to confinement, all felony level offenses are subject to an optional fine not to exceed $10,000.
Expanding the list of behaviors for which an enhancement to a criminal penalty is applied is expected to result in increased demands upon the correctional resources of counties or of the State due to longer terms of supervision in the community or longer terms of confinement in state correctional institutions. The bill may have a negative fiscal impact by increasing the number of people incarcerated within state correctional institutions, or placed under parole supervision. Whether the bill would result in a significant fiscal impact is indeterminate due to lack of statewide data related to the victim's medical outcome. A statewide repository containing the level of detail necessary to isolate those individuals arrested, placed under felony community supervision or incarcerated for aggravated assault under the circumstances in which the offense would be enhanced is also not available. In fiscal year 2016, 2,520 individuals were arrested, 491 were placed under felony community supervision, and 473 were admitted to state correctional institutions for aggravated assault.