Felony driving under the influence.

07LSO-0406.L1

FISCAL NOTE

The fiscal impact is indeterminable due to unknown sentencing under the proposed legislation.  However, the potential impact could be significant.

Source of Expenditure Increase:

The change of penalty for driving under the influence (DUI) resulting in “serious bodily injury” from a misdemeanant to a felony offense creates a new potential cost for probation or incarceration of the offender as there are costs for that supervision or incarceration.  Each year of incarceration, per inmate, will cost the State, in current dollars, approximately $34,200 for the cost of incarceration and approximately $10,800 for medical costs.

Assumptions:

It is difficult to accurately determine the number of offenders who would violate this law.  There are currently between 2,850 and 3,000 offenders per year who are convicted of a DUI offense.  Of this number, however, only about 2 inmates per year are sentenced pursuant to W.S. 31-5-233(h)(i).  If changes to the law make this section more likely to be used in charging offenders with DUI offenses, the actual impact could be greater than the current use of the statute in charging and sentencing of offenders.  There are no current measures that would allow for an accurate prediction of the number of individuals sentenced pursuant to the proposed legislation.

Prepared by: Brian Farmer, Department of Corrections Phone: 777-5983

The fiscal impact to the judicial system is indeterminable due to an unknown number of cases.

Prepared by:   Holly Hansen, Supreme Court Phone:   777-7678