Honorable Todd Hunter, Chair, House Committee on State Affairs
FROM:
Jerry McGinty, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB65 by Spiller (Relating to the prosecution and punishment of certain criminal offenses committed in the course of or for the purpose of avoiding certain law enforcement checkpoints or evading an arrest or detention; increasing criminal penalties.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted
The bill would establish a presumption for the offense of smuggling of persons that the actor acted knowingly and with the intent to conceal an individual being transported from a peace officer or special investigator if in the course of committing the offense the actor intentionally avoided a federal or state law enforcement checkpoint.
The bill would increase the penalty for the offenses of assault, criminal trespass, burglary of vehicles, and burglary of a building that is not a habitation to a third degree felony if it is shown that the actor committed the offense in the course of or for the purpose of intentionally avoiding a federal or state law enforcement checkpoint. The bill would increase the penalty for certain property damage or destruction offenses to a third degree felony if it is shown that the actor committed the offense in the course of or for the purpose of intentionally avoiding a federal or state law enforcement checkpoint or engaging in conduct constituting the offense of evading arrest or detention.
Increasing the penalty for an existing offense may result in additional demands upon state and local correctional resources due to a possible increase in the number of individuals placed under supervision in the community or sentenced to a term of confinement.
In fiscal year 2022, there were 94,389 individuals arrested, 11,446 individuals placed onto adult community supervision, 7,936 individuals placed onto juvenile probation supervision, 967 individuals admitted to an adult state correctional institution, and 73 individuals admitted to a juvenile state correctional institution for an offense that may have been eligible for an increased penalty under the provisions of the bill. However, it is unknown how many of these cases included conduct eligible for an increased penalty under the provisions of the bill.
The impact on state correctional populations or on the demand for state correctional resources cannot be determined due to a lack of data to estimate the prevalence of conduct that would be subject to an increased criminal penalty under the provisions of the bill.