Honorable Joe Moody, Chair, House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence
FROM:
Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB2032 by Gervin-Hawkins (Relating to increasing the criminal penalty for certain offenses committed on the premises of a public transportation system.), As Introduced
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 certain sexual, assault, and robbery offenses. Under the provisions of the bill, certain sexual, assault, and robbery offenses would be enhanced to the punishment prescribed for the next higher category of offense if the offense was committed on the premise of a public transportation system. The offenses subject to felony enhancement are currently punished as a Class A misdemeanor, a state jail felony, a third degree felony, and a second degree felony. The punishment would not be enhanced for offenses currently punished as a first degree felony.
A second degree felony is punishable by confinement in prison for a term of 2 to 20 years; a third degree felony from 2 to 10 years, and a state jail felony is punishable by confinement in a state jail for a term from 180 days to 2 years or Class A misdemeanor punishment. In addition to confinement, all felony level offenses are subject to an optional fine not to exceed $10,000.
Increasing the penalty for any offense is expected to result in increased demands upon correctional resources of the counties or of the State due to longer terms of supervision in the community or longer terms of confinement within state correctional institutions. Whether the bill would result in a significant impact on correctional populations is indeterminate due to lack of statewide data containing the specific location of the offense. Data collected at the statewide level do not contain the detail necessary to isolate those individuals arrested, placed under community supervision, or incarcerated for the sexual, assault, and robbery offenses under the circumstances in which these offenses would be enhanced. In fiscal year 2016, 49,281 individuals were arrested, 10,628 were placed under community supervision for a Class A misdemeanor or felony, and 7,955 were admitted into state correctional institutions for the offenses subject to the bill's enhancement provision. The enhancements addressed by the bill could result in a significant impact on state correctional agencies, though the impact cannot be determined.