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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T
SPONSOR
Maestas
ORIGINAL DATE
LAST UPDATED
2/2/07
HB 582
SHORT TITLE
Child Abuse Charges for Each Child
SB
ANALYST C.Sanchez
APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)
Appropriation
Recurring
or Non-Rec
Fund
Affected
FY07
FY08
NFI
(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
LFC Files
Responses Received From
Corrections Department (CD)
Children Youth and Families Department (CYFD)
Public Defender Department (PDD)
SUMMARY
Synopsis of Bill
House Bill 582 amends the current criminal statute addressing child abuse and abandonment,
NMSA 1978 § 30-6-1, to establish that a separate criminal charge may be imposed for each child
abandoned or abused even if the abandonment/abuse constitutes one continuous act.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
Legislation resulting in a criminal defendant’s exposure to an increased sentence in the aggregate
makes it more likely that the criminal defendants affected by such legislation will proceed to trial
instead of accepting a plea offer. This may result in an increased caseload and additional court
time for Public Defender Department attorneys, as well as additional appellate caseload for the
Public Defender Department, the Attorney General’s Office and the appellate courts.
pg_0002
House Bill 582 – Page
2
Since the Act already makes such crimes felonies in many cases, this means that offenders will
be sentenced to several felony convictions at once (and probably serve the convictions
consecutively) if he abuses or neglects one or more children at the same time. This will lead to
longer sentences for these offenders. It will cause increases in the prison population, probably to
a minimal to moderate degree.
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.
The cost per client in Probation and Parole for a standard supervision program is $1,467 per year.
The cost per client in Intensive Supervision programs is $3,383 per year. The cost per client in
department-operated Community Corrections programs is $3,503 per year. The cost per client in
privately-operated Community Corrections programs is $7,917 per year. The cost per client per
year for male and female residential Community Corrections programs is $39,401.
SIGNIFICANT ISSUES
This appears to be a legislative response to State v. Castañeda
, 2001-NMCA-052, 130 N.M. 679.
The proposed legislative clarification will affect those charged for acts of abuse that implicated
more than one child, but which resulted in no injury to any child, and will allow charging and
conviction to range from one count up to as many counts of abuse as there were children
involved.
OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES
The current law provides no authority for establishing separate charges for each child involved in
the abuse or abandonment, although it allows separate counts for each child. By stating that
separate charges “may" be imposed, the bill does not make the filing of such separate charges
mandatory.
The District Attorney retains discretion whether to invoke separate charges for each child.
The Children You and Families Department’s child abuse and neglect investigations already take
into account the effect on each child and when called to testify, social workers are questioned
about each child. The Bill will not change CYFD’s current role or duties in these cases.
In the 12-month period ending March 31, 2006, 6,491 referrals for child abuse or neglect were
substantiated by CYFD.
WHAT WILL BE THE CONSEQUENCES OF NOT ENACTING THIS BILL
Status Quo
POSSIBLE QUESTIONS
Will this bill deter child abuse in New Mexico.
CS/nt