Honorable Byron Cook, Chair, House Committee on State Affairs
FROM:
Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB2858 by Burns (Relating to human trafficking signs at abortion facilities and offenses associated with human trafficking and forced abortion; increasing criminal penalties.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted
The provisions of the bill addressing felony sanctions are the subject of this analysis. Under the provisions of the bill, an individual who commits human trafficking which results in the death of the unborn child of the trafficked person would be subject to punishment for a first degree felony. The bill would also enhance the penalty for assault from a Class A misdemeanor to a third degree felony if an individual intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly caused bodily injury to a pregnant person to force that person to have an abortion.
A first degree felony is punishable by confinement in prison for life or a term from 5 to 99 years and a third degree felony is punishable by confinement in prison for a term from 2 to 10 years. In addition to confinement, most felony offenses are subject to an optional fine not to exceed $10,000.
Enhancing the punishment for any criminal offense is expected to result in increased demands on the correctional resources of 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 population impact is indeterminate due to lack of statewide data related to specific circumstances of human trafficking that result in the death of an unborn child of the person who is trafficked or assaults in which the pregnant individual is forced to have an abortion as specified by the bill. Data collected at the statewide level do not contain the detail necessary to isolate those individuals arrested, placed under felony community supervision, or incarcerated within correctional institutions for committing certain offenses under the circumstances in which the offenses would be enhanced. In fiscal year 2016, 52,566 individuals were arrested and 8,591 were placed under misdemeanor community supervision for the offense of assault. In fiscal year 2016, 71 individuals were arrested, fewer than 10 were placed under felony community supervision, and 16 were admitted into state correctional institutions for human trafficking.