FISCAL NOTE



FUND(S):



Sources of Revenue:

General Fund

Legislation creates:

Neither Program nor Fund



Fiscal Note Summary


Effect this measure will have on costs and revenues of state government.


The West Virginia Division of Corrections has no readily available information pertaining to the number of existing offenders who have been convicted for Malicious or Unlawful Assault that committed their crimes on school grounds against school personnel or students. As a result, we cannot completely estimate the fiscal impact of this legislation. However, since the current minimum period an offender must serve prior to parole eligibility under the Malicious Wounding statute is 2 years and the minimum they would have to serve under the proposed legislation would be 6.25 years, assuming the offender received the minimum penalty of 25 years (Parole eligibility for determinate sentences is usually ¼ of the sentence, 25 x .25 = 6.25), an offender would serve AT LEAST 4.25 more years prior to parole eligibility. Therefore, these offenders would cost the state of West Virginia AT LEAST $98,872.00 more to house than they do currently ($23,264 is the average cost per inmate in FY 2008, 4.25 x $23,264 = $98,872). This assumes that parole is granted at the minimum eligibility (the parole grant rate currently is approximately 60%) and that inmate behaviors are comparable.



Fiscal Note Detail


Effect of Proposal Fiscal Year
2009
Increase/Decrease
(use"-")
2010
Increase/Decrease
(use"-")
Fiscal Year
(Upon Full
Implementation)
1. Estmated Total Cost 0 0 0
Personal Services 0 0 0
Current Expenses 0 0 0
Repairs and Alterations 0 0 0
Assets 0 0 0
Other 0 0 0
2. Estimated Total Revenues 0 0 0


Explanation of above estimates (including long-range effect):






Memorandum


Technical issues: • The proposed legislation appears to provide for a 25 year minimum determinate sentence with no upper range limit. This could conceivably lead to very long sentences of 50 or 75 years or more. Is that the intent of this legislation? • The proposed penalty is severe when related to other similar violent crimes. For example, attempted murder is a 3 to 15 year sentence and second degree murder is a 10 to 40 year determinate sentence. Because of the way the proposed penalty is structured, an offender could conceivably receive a greater sentence for assault on school grounds than for attempted murder or second degree murder.



    Person submitting Fiscal Note: Loita Butcher
    Email Address: butchl@mail.wvnet.edu