The provisions of the bill addressing felony sanctions are the subject of this analysis. The bill would amend the Penal Code as it relates to creating a criminal offense of aggravated kidnapping of a child. Under the provisions of the bill, a person would commit a first degree felony if the person intentionally or knowingly abducted a child younger than 18 years of age. Under current statute, aggravated kidnapping is punishable as a first or second degree felony with punishment based on the specific circumstances of the offense.

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 a term from 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. Complete data are not available to identify the number of people with aggravated kidnapping offenses involving a child younger than 18 years of age. After removing those cases where the victim age was specified to be 18 or older, the remaining cases included those where the victim age was missing or the victim age was under 18. In fiscal year 2018, 345 people were arrested, 20 placed on felony community supervision, and 33 were incarcerated for aggravated kidnapping. 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.