Honorable James White, Chair, House Committee on Corrections
FROM:
Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB3289 by White (Relating to the procedures for certain technical violations of community supervision.), As Introduced
The provisions of the bill addressing felony sanctions are the subject of this analysis. The bill would amend the Code of Criminal Procedure as it relates to the procedures for certain technical violations of community supervision. Under the provisions of the bill, only certain individuals would be eligible for revocation based on a technical violation of community supervision. Those ineligible for revocation would be subject to supervision modifications, including confinement.
Decreasing the number of individuals whose community supervision can be revoked is expected to result in decreased demands upon the correctional resources of the counties and of the State due to fewer individuals confined in state correctional institutions. Whether the bill would have a significant impact on correctional populations is indeterminate due to the lack of statewide data related to the specific technical violations resulting in revocation. In fiscal year 2016, 12,209 individuals had their felony community supervision revoked as a result of a technical violation of community supervision. After removing those individuals who previously had a term of community supervision of revoked or had been previously been convicted of certain felony offenses specified by the bill, 3,289 individuals remained for further evaluation against the bill's remaining provisions. Data collected at the statewide level do not contain the detail necessary to identify the technical violations resulting in the revocation, and specifically whether the violations involved contacting the victim of the offense for which the individual was placed under community supervision, failing to report to a supervision officer for 90 days or more, or leaving the state without permission.