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 punishment for certain intoxication offenses and the eligibility for deferred adjudication community supervision of defendants who committed certain intoxication offenses. Under the provisions of the bill, the offense of driving while intoxicated with a child passenger would be enhanced from a state jail felony to a third degree felony under certain circumstances.

A third degree felony is punishable by confinement in prison for a term from 2 to 10 years, and 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.  In addition to confinement, most felony level offenses are subject to an optional fine not to exceed $10,000.

Enhancing the penalty for a 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 within state correctional institutions. In fiscal year 2018, 2,446 individuals were arrested, 572 were placed under felony community supervision, and 344 were admitted into state correctional institutions for the offense of driving while intoxicated with a child passenger. After removing those individuals whose previous intoxication offense conviction history did not meet the conditions necessary for penalty enhancement, 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.