The provisions of the bill addressing felony sanctions are the subject of this analysis.  The bill would amend various codes as they relate to the criminal offense of continuous sexual abuse of a young child. Under the provisions of the bill, a person would commit an offense if they continuously sexually abuse a disabled individual. This offense would be punishable as a first degree felony.

A first degree felony is punishable by confinement in prison for life or a term from 5 to 99 years and, in addition to confinement, can include an optional fine not to exceed $10,000.

Expanding the circumstances for which a criminal penalty is applied is expected to result in additional demands on the correctional resources of the counties and of the State due to an increase in individuals placed under supervision in the community or sentenced to terms of confinement within state correctional institutions. The bill may have a negative population impact by increasing the number of people placed onto felony community supervision or incarcerated within state correctional institutions. Whether the bill would result in a significant increase in state correctional populations is indeterminate due to a lack of data that would allow those cases in which the victim of the sexual abuse was a disabled individual to be isolated from all other sexual abuse cases. These data are necessary to determine how many additional people would be eligible for prosecution for continuous sexual abuse of a child or disabled individual under the provisions of the bill.  In fiscal year 2018, 657 people were arrested, fewer than ten were placed under felony direct community supervision, and 183 were admitted to a state correctional institution for continuous sexual abuse of a young child under current statute. The impact on state correctional populations or on the demand for state correctional resources cannot be determined at this time.