The provisions of the bill addressing felony sanctions are the subject of this analysis. The bill would amend the Code of Criminal Procedure as it relates to procedures for certain technical violations of community supervision. Under the provisions of the bill, only certain individuals would be eligible for revocation based on a technical violation of community supervision.
Decreasing the number of individuals whose community supervision can be revoked is expected to result in fewer demands upon the correctional resources of the counties and of the State due to fewer individuals confined in state correctional institutions. Whether the bill would have a significant impact on correctional populations is indeterminate due to the lack of statewide data related to the specific technical violations resulting in revocation. Based on data reported to the community supervision tracking system for fiscal years 2018 through 2020, 26,278 individuals had their felony community supervision revoked as a result of a technical violation of community supervision. After removing those individuals who previously had a term of community supervision revoked, had been previously convicted of certain violent, sexual, or weapons involved felony offenses, or had engaged in other activities as specified by the bill, 19,666 individuals remained for further evaluation against the bill's remaining provisions. Data collected at the statewide level do not contain the detail necessary to identify the technical violations resulting in the revocation, and specifically whether the violations involved contacting the victim of the offense for which the individual was placed under community supervision, failing to report to a supervision officer for 30 days or more, leaving the state without permission, or certain other activities as outlined in the bill's provisions, which would now make them eligible for supervision modifications instead of revocation.