The provisions of the bill addressing felony sanctions are the subject of this analysis. The bill would amend various codes as they relate to creating the criminal offense of continuous sexual assault. Under the provisions of the bill, a person would commit continuous sexual assault if, during a period of 30 days or more, the person committed two or more acts of sexual assault as specified in the bill. Continuous sexual assault 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 a second degree felony is punishable by confinement in prison for 2 to 20 years. In addition to confinement, most felonies can be subject to an optional fine not to exceed $10,000.

Creating a new offense for which a criminal penalty is applied is expected to result in additional demands upon the correctional resources of counties or of the State due to an increase in the number of individuals placed under supervision in the community or sentenced to a term of confinement within state correctional institutions. Sexual assault is currently punishable as a second degree felony and aggravated sexual assault is punishable as a first degree felony under existing statute. Under current law and policy, individuals convicted of sexually violent offenses serve a high percentage of their sentence. Assuming the bill would apply only to offenses committed on or after the effective date of the Act, the full impact of the bill's provisions would not be realized within the first five years after passage. Based on a review of records for those released from incarceration in fiscal year 2018 for sexual assault, for which the penalty would be at a higher offense category if punished under the proposed offense, the average time served was 2,096 days which is beyond the five year impact covered by this analysis. In fiscal year 2018, 4,648 people were arrested, 440 people were placed on felony direct community supervision, and 1,446 people were admitted into state correctional institutions for acts of sexual assault  and aggravated sexual assault under existing statute. This analysis assumes the provisions of the bill addressing felony sanctions would not result in a significant impact on state correctional populations or on the demand for state correctional resources.