Oppose Enhancing Burglary of a Vehicle: Enforce Existing Law!

Please Oppose:

HB79 - increases burglary of a vehicle from a misdemeanor to a felony;
HB128 - identical to HB79
HB267 - increases burglary of a vehicle to a felony on the second conviction
HB303 - identical to HB267
HB1887 - imposes a punishment of six months in jail plus one year probation on second conviction, increases burglary of a vehicle to a felony on third conviction

These bills would make burglary of a vehicle, currently a class A misdemeanor, into a state jail felony with up to two years in a state prison and/or 10 years of probation, plus lifelong designation as a felon.

What is burglary of a vehicle?

"Burglary of a vehicle" is not theft of a vehicle, it is entering a vehicle and stealing an item. Most burglaries of a vehicle are committed by a young adult or teenager who breaks into a vehicle to steal a stereo or CDs, or by drug addicts seeking money to pay for their habit. Currently, burglary of a vehicle is a Class A misdemeanor, punished by up to 5 years on probation and/or 1 year incarceration in county jail.

These bills are bad public policy, because:

Texas communities need enforcement of the current law.
Local jurisdictions rarely incarcerate these offenders more than a few days.
A stay in Texas prison will not protect public safety as well as other solutions.
The cost of providing for petty thieves should not be shifted to the state.
Texas can not afford the prison construction required by this bill.

Texas communities need enforcement of the current law.

There are 273,000 of these offenses committed each year in Texas, but according to LBB just over 1000 of them were convicted. The problem is not the level of penalty, but the lack of police resources to pursue all these petty theft cases, and the enormous cost to the rest of the criminal justice system to hold them in our jails and prisons. Additional incarceration is not needed when existing penalties are rarely applied.

Local jurisdictions rarely incarcerate these offenders more than a few days even though they could put them behind bars for up to a year if they believed it would help. If incarceration were the answer, the locals would already be doing it. We should invest our tax dollars in programs that are proven to reduce crime more effectively.

A stay in Texas prison will not protect public safety as well as other solutions.

The US Department of Justice, National Institute of Corrections, compiled over 30 years of evidence regarding the effectiveness of various criminal justice programming. For this type of offender:

• Punishment like prison increased criminal behavior by .07%

• Treatment decreased criminal behavior by 15%

• Cognitive programs decreased criminal behavior by 29%

The cost of providing for petty thieves should not be shifted to the state.

Texas taxpayers pay to shelter, clothe and provide medical care for felons in Texas prison. Misdemeanants are punished at the local level through probation and county jail. Naturally, local jurisdictions would prefer that the state pay the bill. Shifting this misdemeanor to a felony “would represent a significant increase in demands upon the correctional resources of the State,” said LBB.

Last session, LBB estimated that these proposals would cost $9.1 million in the first biennium, without construction costs.

Construction costs, even according to LBB's exceedingly conservative estimates of the numbers (500 new people sent to prison each year), would require one new prison unit every biennium at a cost of over $120 million (85 to build and 20/year to operate).
There were 273,000 total cases in Texas last year. If the locals are successful in incarcerating just 1% of the cases, Texas would need 6 new prison units every biennium at a cost of over $700 million per biennium!

Texas communities can not afford to increase the number of felons in this state.

Felons face lifelong barriers to success. The exploding felon population in Texas should not be increased unless other options that are not as harmful to the fabric of our society have failed. 1 in every 11 adults in Texas is already a felon and becoming a permanent underclass lacking access to job opportunities, housing and educational improvement.

These bills make us less secure both inside and outside of the state prisons.

The exploding prison and felon population in Texas is creating problems for the safety and security of our prisons. Already the prison system cannot hire enough staff to effectively manage the population currently incarcerated. Large scale expansions like the one that would likely result from this major penalty enhancement would only excacerbate the problems in an already troubled system. Once released, these petty offenders are more likely to commit additional and more serious crimes.

Local authorities can already choose to prioritize and increase the level of enforcement for petty thefts like burglary of a vehicle, and should do so if the local community sees this as a public safety priority.