Honorable Joan Huffman, Chair, Senate Committee on Jurisprudence
FROM:
Jerry McGinty, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
SB768 by Huffman (Relating to increasing the criminal penalties for manufacture or delivery of fentanyl and related substances; creating a criminal offense.), As Introduced
The provisions of the bill addressing felony sanctions are the subject of this analysis. The bill would amend various codes as they relate to manufacture or delivery of fentanyl and related substances. Under the provisions of the bill, fentanyl or any derivative of fentanyl would be transferred to a newly created penalty group. Depending upon the circumstances of the offense individuals may be ineligible for community supervision or have cases eligible for penalty enhancement. Additionally, a judge may grant deferred adjudication community supervision for certain driving while intoxicated or boating while intoxicated offenses, while certain enhanced intoxication offenses would no longer be eligible for deferred community supervision.
A first degree felony is punishable by confinement in prison for life or a term from 5 to 99 years; a second degree felony is punishable by confinement in prison for a term from 2 to 20 years; 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 a class A misdemeanor. In addition to confinement, most felonies have an optional fine not to exceed $10,000. A Class A misdemeanor is punishable by confinement in county jail for a term not to exceed one year and, in addition to confinement, an optional fine not to exceed $4,000.
Increasing the penalty for a criminal offense is expected to result in additional demands on the correctional resources of the counties or of the State due to an increase in individuals sentenced to terms of confinement within state correctional institutions. For the offenses of manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance in penalty group one, from fiscal years 2018 through 2020, 27,577 people were arrested, 12,922 were placed onto felony direct community supervision, and 10,282 were admitted into a state correctional institution. Reducing the circumstances for eligibility for placement onto community supervision is expected to result in fewer demands on the correctional resources of the counties or of the State due to a decrease in the number of individuals placed onto community supervision. For those intoxication offenses for which punishment may be enhanced, from fiscal years 2018 through 2020, 23,240 people were arrested and 33 were placed onto felony direct deferred community supervision.
The bill may have a negative population impact by increasing the number of people under felony community supervision or incarcerated within state correctional institutions. Whether the bill would result in a significant population impact is indeterminate due to the lack of information on the number of cases where the manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance involved fentanyl or one of its derivatives. This information is necessary to identify the cases that would be affected by the provisions of the bill from all other manufacture and delivery of a controlled substance cases.