Honorable John Whitmire, Chair, Senate Committee on Criminal Justice
FROM:
Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
SB998 by West (Relating to the statute of limitations for the offense of exploitation of a child, elderly individual, or disabled individual.), 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 to add exploitation of a child, elderly individual, or disabled individual to the list of offenses with a statute of limitation of seven years. Under existing statute, the statute of limitation for this offense is three years.
Increasing the statute of limitations is expected to result in greater demands on the correctional resources of the counties or of the State due to an expected increase in the number of individuals prosecuted, sentenced to a term of supervision in the community or to a term of confinement within a state correctional institution, and released to parole supervision. In fiscal year 2016, 87 individuals were arrested, 24 were placed under felony community supervision, and 15 were admitted into state correctional institutions for the offense of exploitation of a child, elderly individual, or disabled individual under the existing statute of limitation. 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.