The provisions of the bill addressing felony sanctions are the subject of this analysis.  The bill would amend the Penal Code to increase the criminal penalty for certain offenses related to theft of packages. Certain theft offenses where the pecuniary value of the item stolen was less than $2,500 would now be punished by a state jail felony. Under current statute, theft of property where the value is $2,500 but less than $30,000 is punished by a state jail felony.

A state jail felony is punishable by confinement in a state jail for a term from 180 days to 2 years and, in addition to confinement, an optional fine not to exceed $10,000 or Class A Misdemeanor punishment.  A Class A misdemeanor is punishable by confinement in county jail for a term not to exceed one year and, in addition to confinement, an optional fine not to exceed $4,000.

Increasing the penalty for any criminal offense is expected to result in additional demands upon the correctional resources of counties or of the State due to longer terms of supervision in the community or longer terms of confinement in state correctional institutions. The bill may have a negative population impact by increasing the number of people on felony community supervision or incarcerated within state correctional institutions. Whether the bill would result in a significant increase in correctional populations cannot be determined due to the lack of data related to the number of times theft of property with a value less than $2,500 would now be enhanced to a state jail as outlined in the bill's provisions.  In fiscal year 2018, for misdemeanor offenses related to theft of property with value less than $2,500, 30,910 people were arrested, 7,017 were placed on misdemeanor community supervision, and fewer than ten were incarcerated. Data do not exist that would allow for those theft cases outlined in the bill's provisions to be identified from all other cases.