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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Swisstack

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/21/2006

1/23/2006 HB 65

SHORT TITLE Penalties for Street Gang Recruitment

SB

ANALYST McOlash

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY06

FY07

NFI

NFI

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Relates to: HB 60 Street Gang Activity Sentencing Requirements

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) – 2005

Administrative Office of District Attorneys (AODA) – 2005

Attorney General’s Office (AGO) – 2005

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 65 enacts a new section of the Criminal Code to define “gang recruitment” and en-

hances the penalties for recruitment and inducement of minors. House Bill 65 is a duplicate of

HB 226aa from 2005.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

None

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

Definitions

a.

“gang recruitment” consists of the solicitation or recruitment of another to

participate in patterns of gang activities or to promote or assist in felonious

conduct.

b.

“criminal street gang” means an ongoing, formal or informal organization, as-

House Bill 65 – Page 2

sociation or group of three or more, having a common name or identifying

sign or symbol, whose members engage in or have engaged in, individually or

collectively, a pattern of criminal gang activity, and have as one of its primary

activities the commission of one or more of a list of specified felonies.

c.

“pattern of criminal gang activity” means the commission of, attempted

commission of, conspiracy to commit or solicitation to commit two or more of

the listed felonies by members of a criminal street gang, provided the offenses

occurred within three years of each other and were committed on separate oc

casions by two or more persons.

Penalties

a. “gang recruitment”

basic sentence = misdemeanor

enhanced sentence for recruitment of minors = fourth degree felony

b. “gang recruitment by threat or violence”

basic sentence = fourth degree felony

enhanced sentence for recruitment of minors = third degree felony

PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS

The AOC has indicated (2005) that the enactment of this bill may impact the performance-based

budgeting measures which may result in the need for additional resources. New laws or amend-

ments to existing laws have the potential to increase caseloads in the courts, according to the

AOC.

CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP

House Bill 65

enhances the penalties for various criminal gang activities.

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

The AODA indicated that similar legislation was passed in California in 1988. AODA antici-

pates there would be challenges to this legislation under both the United State Constitution and

the New Mexico Constitution.

BMC/yr:nt