Honorable John Whitmire, Chair, Senate Committee on Criminal Justice
FROM:
Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB2283 by Isaac (Relating to the prosecution of the offense of sexual assault.), As Engrossed
The bill would amend the Penal Code as it relates to the offense of sexual assault. Under the provisions of the bill, the definition of employee of a facility would be expanded to include employees of a child-care facility. Under current statute, sexual assault is a second degree felony.
A second degree felony is punishable by confinement in prison for a term from 2 to 20 years, and, in addition to confinement, an optional fine not to exceed $10,000.
Expanding the circumstances in which a criminal penalty is applied is expected to result in increased demands on the correctional resources of counties or of the State due to a potential increase in the number of individuals placed under supervision in the community or sentenced to a term of confinement within state correctional institutions. In fiscal year 2016, 898 people were arrested, 63 were placed under felony community supervision, and 126 were admitted into state correctional institutions for sexual assault under existing statute. However, this analysis assumes the provisions of the bill addressing felony sanctions would not result in a significant impact on the demand for state correctional resources.