Honorable Pete Flores, Chair, Senate Committee on Criminal Justice
FROM:
Jerry McGinty, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
SB1610 by Perry (Relating to sexually violent predators, to the Texas Civil Commitment Office, and to the prosecution of the offense of harassment by sexually violent predators and other persons confined in certain facilities; amending and harmonizing certain statute of limitations provisions; amending certain sex offender registration requirements; changing the eligibility for community supervision, parole, and mandatory supervision for sexually violent predators; creating a criminal offense; increasing criminal penalties.), As Introduced
Amongst other offense-related provisions, the bill would increase the penalty for certain offenses if committed while the actor is civilly committed to the Texas Civil Commitment Office (TCCO) and determine the sentence as life in prison for a conviction of any felony offense other than a state jail felony. The bill would also prohibit the release of a person convicted of a felony that occurred while civilly committed to TCCO onto community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.
Increasing the penalty for an existing offense and removing supervision options may result in additional demands upon state correctional resources due to a possible increase in the number of individuals confined and in the length of stay for individuals sentenced to a term of confinement.
As of February 2025, there were 494 individuals civilly committed to the Texas Civil Commitment Center who would be eligible for increased penalties and an increased sentence in the occurrence of committing a felony offense under the bill's provisions.
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 cases in which a person committed an offense while civilly committed.