Honorable Nicole Collier, Chair, House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence
FROM:
Jerry McGinty, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB3110 by Meyer (Relating to possession or promotion of child sexual abuse material; increasing a criminal penalty; changing eligibility for community supervision.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted
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 criminal penalties for possession or promotion of child sexual abuse material. Under the provisions of the bill, the criminal penalty for possession or promotion of child sexual abuse material would be a second degree felony unless certain circumstances are met which would result in punishment as a first degree felony. Under current statute, the related offense of possession or promotion of child pornography is punishable as a third, second, or first degree felony dependent on the circumstances of the offense. Under the provisions of the bill, individuals convicted of an offense in certain circumstances would not be eligible for community supervision.
A first degree felony is punishable by confinement in prison for life or a term from 5 to 99 years and, in addition to confinement, an optional fine not to exceed $10,000. A second degree felony is punishable by confinement in prison for a term from 2 to 20 years and, in addition to confinement, an optional fine not to exceed $10,000. A third degree felony is punishable by confinement in prison for a term from 2 to 10 years and, in addition to confinement, an optional fine not to exceed $10,000.
Increasing the criminal penalty for this offense 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. The cases involving the third degree felony that would be punished as a second degree felony under the proposed changes involved 61 individuals in fiscal year 2018, 67 in fiscal year 2019, and 57 individuals in fiscal year 2020 who were placed under community supervision. There were fewer than ten cases across the three fiscal years involving the second degree felony that would be punished as a first degree felony under the proposed changes. In fiscal year 2018, there were 85 individuals, 97 in fiscal year 2019, and 66 in fiscal year 2020 who were admitted to a state correctional facility for the third degree felony; there were fewer than ten individuals across the three fiscal years admitted to a state correctional facility for the second degree felony charge. An examination of average lengths of stay and average lengths of supervision for these offenses indicates that population impacts of this legislation will take longer than five fiscal years to observe. This analysis assumes implementing 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.