The provisions of the bill addressing felony sanctions are the subject of this analysis.  The bill would amend the Penal Code to decrease the punishment for certain theft cases if the person was convicted three or more times of theft involving property valued at $750 or more but less than $2,500.  Under the provisions of the bill, in these circumstances the punishment for theft would be decreased from a state jail felony to a Class A misdemeanor. A state jail felony is punishable by confinement in a state jail for a term from 180 days to 2 years or Class A misdemeanor punishment, and in addition to confinement, an optional fine not to exceed $10,000.  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.

Decreasing the punishment for any criminal offense is expected to result in additional demands upon the correctional resources of counties or of the State due to shorter terms of supervision in the community and fewer persons sentenced to a term of confinement in state correctional institutions.  The bill may have a positive population impact by decreasing the number of people incarcerated within state correctional institutions. Whether the bill would result in a significant decrease in state correctional populations cannot be determined due to the lack of data or information related to the number of cases in which a person was convicted three or more times for theft involving property valued at $750 or more but less than $2,500.  In fiscal year 2018, 6,736 people were arrested, 776 were placed under community supervision, and 2,555 were admitted into state correctional institutions for the offense of theft subject to the bill's provisions. Data do not exist that would allow for those cases in which these offenses involved a person convicted three or more times for theft involving property valued at $750 or more but less than $2,500 to be identified from all other cases. These data are necessary to determine the number of individuals with certain previous theft convictions who would now be punished as misdemeanants and estimate the state correctional population impact.