Honorable Brian Birdwell, Chair, Senate Committee on Border Security
FROM:
Jerry McGinty, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
SB1427 by Flores (Relating to certain criminal conduct and organizations that threaten the security of this state and its residents and borders; increasing criminal penalties.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted
The bill would increase to ten years the minimum term of imprisonment for certain felony smuggling of persons and continuous smuggling of persons offenses and would provide for increased punishment at the next highest category of offense, or a fifteen year minimum term of imprisonment in the case of a first degree felony, when the offense is committed in a disaster or evacuated area. The bill would increase the penalty for the operation of a stash house to a third degree felony. The bill would expand the applicability of certain offenses relating to engaging in organized criminal activity to include a foreign terrorist organization and expand the conduct constituting the offense to include the unlawful possession with the intent to deliver a controlled substance or dangerous drug and operation of a stash house.
Expanding the conduct constituting and modifying 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 6,599 individuals arrested, 202 individuals placed on adult community supervision, and 150 individuals admitted to an adult state correctional institution for felony smuggling of persons and continuous smuggling of persons offenses which would be subject to a minimum ten-year term of imprisonment. It is unknown how many of these cases would additionally be subject to enhancement when the offense is committed in a disaster or evacuated area.
In fiscal year 2022, there were 9,875 individuals arrested, 1,926 individuals placed on adult community supervision, 119 individuals placed on juvenile probation supervision, 2,825 individuals admitted to an adult state correctional institution, and 1 individual admitted to a juvenile state correctional institution for manufacturing, delivering, or possessing with intent to deliver a controlled substance in violation of the Texas Controlled Substances Act or a dangerous drug in violation of the Texas Dangerous Drug Act. In fiscal year 2022, there were 116 individuals arrested and 1 individual placed on adult community supervision for the offense of operation of a stash house. It is unknown how many of these offenses would be subject to enhanced penalties due to involving either possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance or dangerous drug or engagement with organized criminal activity or a foreign terrorist organization.
The impact on state correctional populations or on the demand for state correctional resources cannot be determined due to the lack of data to identify the number of additional cases that would qualify as an offense of engaging in organized criminal activity under the bill's provisions or be subject to a penalty enhancement when the offense is committed in a disaster or evacuated area.