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Index theft categories to inflation

In 1993, Texas set the current threshold for felony theft at $1,500 for a state jail felony - below that, theft receives misdemeanor charges that don't involve state prison time. The jump to the next offense category is quite significant - someone must steal more than $20,000 to be charged with a third degree felony.However, adjusting for inflation, $1,500 in 1993 amounts to $2,208 in today's dollars. Indeed, "if you were to buy exactly the same products in 2008 and 1993, they would cost you $1500 and $1026.91 respectively." So over time, less serious thefts have come to be categorized as felonies that would have been misdemeanors at the time the law established the current threshold.That's both unfair to defendants - who may receive different punishments for comparable offenses - and also results in an incremental boost in the incarceration rate over time as less serious thefts become felonies...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on February 07, 2010 (boomark / email).