The provisions of the bill addressing parole eligibility are the subject of this analysis. The bill would amend the Government Code as it relates to the eligibility for release onto parole of certain individuals convicted of certain offenses committed when younger than 18 years of age. Under the provisions of the bill, these individuals would be eligible for consideration for release onto parole supervision when the actual time served on a sentence equals one-half of the sentence or 20 years, whichever is less, with a minimum term of confinement of four years. The bill would apply to individuals confined in state correctional institutions on or after the effective date, regardless of whether the offense for which they are confined occurred before, on, or after the effective date of the Act.

Under existing statute, most of these individuals are eligible for parole consideration when the actual time served on a sentence equals one-half of the sentence or 30 years, whichever is less, with a minimum term of confinement of two years. Decreasing the amount of time an individual must serve before becoming eligible for parole consideration is expected to result in reduced demands on the correctional resources of the State due to an opportunity for shorter terms of confinement within state correctional institutions. The bill would also increase the minimum term of confinement from two years to four years and increasing a minimum term of confinement is expected to result in increased demands on the correctional resources of the State.

As of August 31, 2020, there were 2,011 individuals confined within state correctional institutions who were younger than 18 at offense and incarcerated for an offense subject to the bill's provisions. After adjusting the minimum term of confinement for certain individuals from 2 years to 4 years, removing those individuals who had not yet served half of their sentence, those who had already been considered for parole release (either approved or set-off), the current parole case consideration approval rates were applied. Implementing the provisions of the bill addressing parole release eligibility consideration would not result in a significant reduction on the demand for state correctional resources.