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

SPONSOR Heaton

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/8/2007

HB 586

SHORT TITLE Use of Firearms in Certain Felonies

SB

ANALYST Schuss

ESTIMATED ADDITIONAL OPERATING BUDGET IMPACT (dollars in thousands)

FY07

FY08

FY09 3 Year

Total Cost

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

Total

$0.1*

$0.1*

$0.1* Recurring General

Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases) * Significant Impact

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC)

New Mexico Sentencing Commission (NMSC)

Public Defender Department (PDD)

New Mexico Corrections Department (NMCD)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 586 amends Section 31-18-16 NMSA 1978 to increase the alteration of the basic sen-

tence of imprisonment when a firearm is used in the commission of a noncapital felony as fol-

lows:

•

when the court or jury finds that a firearm was used in the commission of a non-

capital felony, the basic sentence shall be increased by 3 years rather than 1, and

the sentence imposed shall be the first 3 years served and shall not be suspended

or deferred; provided that when the offender is a serious youthful offender, the

sentence may be increased by 3 years.

•

for a second or subsequent noncapital felony in which a firearm is used, the basic

sentence of imprisonment shall be increased by 5 years rather than 3, and the sen-

tence imposed shall be the first 5 years served and shall not be suspended or de-

ferred; provided that when the offender is a serious youthful offender, the sen-

tence may be increased by 5 years.

House Bill 586 – Page

2

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

NMCD lists the following fiscal implications:

The addition of this new enhancement would have a high impact on the department’s

costs by the large addition to the inmate population and probation/parole caseloads. Currently

not everyone convicted of using a gun during the commission of a felony is sentenced to prison

because it is only a one year enhancement. When an individual’s pre-sentence confinement

credit is factored in, the sentence no longer exceeds one year and many individuals are not sen-

tenced to the department but are placed on probation.

This new law would greatly increase the number of inmates serving time in our prisons.

Until recently, for example, the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office employed two

prosecutors full time through a federal grant to focus just on these types of crimes. At any one

time 25% to 40% of the cases in that division alone involve firearms. This does not include the

cases involving firearms in the gang, narcotics and property divisions.

The contract/private prison annual cost of incarcerating an inmate is $23,867 per year for

males. The cost per client to house a female inmate at a privately operated facility is $21,651 per

year. Because state owned prisons are essentially at capacity, any net increase in inmate popula-

tion will be housed at a contract/private facility.

The financial impact would be high based upon the increased number of inmates for

longer periods of time. This may be offset some by a minimal amount of revenue generated by

the probation/parolee supervision fees paid during the probation/parole period.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

AOC notes that as penalties increase, increased terms of imprisonment tend to inspire defendants

to retain attorneys and demand jury trials. Indigent defendants are entitled to public defender

services.

PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS

PDD notes that due to the dramatically increased penalties brought by this bill, there would

likely be some increase in trial and appeal workload for the Public Defender Department, the

courts, and the District Attorneys/Attorney General, since these offenders would be considerably

less likely to take plea offers that had a mandatory three-year (instead of the present one-year)

term.

This bill would increase the workload of both the prison staff and probation and parole employ-

ees due to the higher number of inmates that would actually come to the department to serve

prison and subsequently be placed on parole.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

NMCD states that this bill will increase the inmate population or probation/parole caseloads by a

large number; it will increase the workloads of prison and probation/parole staff. This bill may

also increase the workloads of the various District Attorney offices.

BS/sb