Creates the Fiscal Truth in Sentencing Act (OR INCREASE GF EX See Note)

House Bill 479 enacts the Fiscal Truth in Sentencing Act as Chapter 44 of Title 13 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes, establishing a new statutory framework requiring district clerks of court to compile and report sentencing data to the legislative auditor. Specifically, the legislation mandates that district clerks responsible for criminal records submit quarterly reports containing three categories of sentencing data: the number of individuals sentenced to confinement per judge, the total number of years of confinement per judge, and the ages of individuals sentenced to twenty years or more. The statute further requires the Division of Administration to submit final budget figures to the legislative auditor by October fifteenth each year for six specified budget units including the Department of Public Safety and Corrections divisions and the Judiciary. The legislative auditor must then synthesize this information into an annual report to the House Committee on Appropriations and the Senate Committee on Finance by December fifteenth, which will project five-year incarceration costs and include relevant budget data, capital appropriations for prisons and jails, state debt service related to correctional facilities, civil judgments against such facilities, retirement system data, and estimated average incarceration costs per person.

The practical effect of this legislation falls upon district clerks of court throughout Louisiana, who become responsible for collecting and organizing sentencing information on a quarterly basis beginning with the final quarter of 2026, and upon the legislative auditor, whose office assumes the duty of aggregating this data annually and producing cost projections for legislative committees. Juvenile court records are included in the reporting requirements for sentences issued after August first, 2026, specifically covering the clerk of the Juvenile Court for Orleans Parish and other district clerks handling juvenile cases. The reporting obligations exclude traffic violations and juvenile records other than sentencing data itself, meaning clerks need not transmit the full case files or images. The legislation provides civil immunity to clerks and their employees, the legislative auditor and its staff, and any state or local entities providing information to clerks in connection with their compliance with these new requirements.

This legislation operates within the existing structure of Louisiana's court system and criminal justice budget processes. The statute references and operates alongside the Children's Code Article 412 regarding juvenile records confidentiality, establishing reporting requirements that comply with that framework by limiting transmitted information to sentencing data only. The law interacts with the Division of Administration's existing budget reporting duties and the legislative auditor's existing authority under Louisiana law. The immunity provision in Subsection E preserves other applicable defenses and immunities available to public officials and entities under existing law, ensuring that this new immunity does not replace but supplements protections already available. The statute's creation of a new reporting and cost-projection mechanism serves the stated purpose of assisting legislative budgeting for the criminal justice system and increasing public transparency regarding the financing of corrections, jails, and related state entities.