Honorable John Whitmire, Chair, Senate Committee on Criminal Justice
FROM:
Jerry McGinty, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
SB1166 by Birdwell (Relating to the punishment for the offense of burglary of a vehicle involving theft of a firearm; increasing a criminal penalty.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted
The bill would increase the criminal penalty for burglary of a vehicle from a Class A misdemeanor to a third degree felony if the actor committed theft of a firearm during the commission of the vehicle burglary.
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 3,554 individuals arrested, 480 individuals placed on adult community supervision, 350 individuals placed on juvenile community supervision, 96 individuals admitted into an adult state correctional institution, and no individuals admitted into a juvenile state correctional institution for the offense of burglary of a vehicle. It is unknown how many cases involved theft of a firearm during the commission of the vehicle burglary and would be subject to an increased penalty under the bill's provisions.
While it is assumed that any impact on state correctional populations or on the demand for state correctional resources would not be significant, increasing a penalty from a misdemeanor to a felony would permit the punishment of juveniles by commitment to the Texas Juvenile Justice Department and may lead to increased populations in juvenile state correctional facilities.