Local officials in Washington, D.C., and members of Congress have recently clashed over finding solutions to curb crime as the city is on pace to have its deadliest year in two decades.
Congress historically stays out of D.C. jurisdiction, so the D.C. Council addressed the growing crisis with local laws. In July, the city council passed multiple emergency bills, including language from Mayor Muriel Bowser’s controversial legislation that gives judges more discretion to hold people awaiting trial for a violent offense.
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The emergency legislation, sponsored by Judiciary and Public Safety Committee Chairwoman Brooke Pinto, went into effect for 90 days after Bowser signed the bill on July 20. The legislation was set to expire on Oct. 18. However, the council voted to extend the emergency legislation until the spring, awaiting Bowser’s signature.
Here is what the emergency legislation does
Pinto’s bill extends penalties for certain crimes, including the Bowser-backed measure to make it easier for judges to detain those charged with violent crimes in pretrial cases.
Roughly 60% of those in the custody of the D.C. Department of Corrections are pretrial detainees, according to the D.C. Policy Center.
The emergency measure expands pretrial detention for adults and youth who are charged with crimes such as violent offenses, homicide, assault, sexual abuse, and carjackings. The bill did not include a provision from Bowser’s legislation that would have made it easier for judges to detain juveniles for almost any dangerous or violent crime, even if they were not armed.
FWD.us, an immigration and criminal justice reform advocacy organization based in the city, condemned the passage of expanded pretrial incarceration, citing a relatively low recidivism rate among those awaiting trial.
“Pretrial releases in D.C. are not driving crime in the District: 93% of people released pretrial aren’t rearrested within D.C. at all while awaiting trial and only 1% are rearrested for a violent offense,” the organization states, citing a fiscal 2022 financial report from the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency for D.C.
Another emergency provision establishes a new gun crime — making firing a gun in public a felony offense with a punishment of up to two years behind bars. The bill to make discharging a gun a felony comes as gun seizures are soaring compared to last year as the Metropolitan Police Department works to recover illegal firearms. Shootings in the city are up 20% and the number of homicides has risen 28% since 2022, police said during a conference at the end of September. According to Everytown Research & Policy, on an average year, 155 people die by guns in D.C.
The bill puts more restrictions on firing a gun in a public space and increases penalties for those who fire over five rounds. There are exemptions in place for acts of self-defense.
Pinto’s bill includes strangulation to the definition of a crime of violence in the city’s code, adding a new felony strangulation offense, which carries a punishment of up to five years in prison.
“Strangulation is a key predictor of future domestic violence turning deadly; establishing a stand-alone felony offense of strangulation will make it easier for the District to hold individuals who engage in this conduct accountable,” the proposed resolution from July reads.
Strangulation is a felony in all states, with Ohio being the only outlier until this year when Gov. Mike DeWine (R-OH) signed a law that recognizes strangulation as a felony. Before, abusers who were caught were subject to a misdemeanor charge in Ohio.
Unrelenting violence plagued the city this summer as the city surpassed over 200 homicides before October, the earliest point reached in 52 years, distressing local leaders and residents.
While Congress normally does not interfere in D.C. jurisdiction, that 31-year streak came to an end in March when the Senate voted 81 to 14 to block Bowser’s criminal code, which would have enacted sweeping changes to the city’s criminal code for the first time in a century. Called the D.C. Revised Criminal Code Act of 2022, the D.C. Council passed the measures last November. The bill would have lowered the maximum sentences for certain offenses, such as carjackings and robberies, and removed most mandatory minimum sentences.
Despite Congress striking down Bowser’s proposals, the D.C. Council is still working with the mayor's office and other city officials to put together a more permanent crime bill, which members say will come together this fall. Mendelson said D.C. officials need to “get more creative” in order to get additional resources to lower crime.
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“I feel safe in the city, but I recognize a lot of folks don't. And in my view, government has an obligation for everybody to feel safe,” D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson told WUSA9.
“What really will make a difference and have a deterrent effect is actually arresting the perpetrators,” Mendelson added. “That means closing cases — less than half of homicides are solved within one year, and something like three-quarters of robberies are never solved. I think that MPD and the mayor have got to get more creative about how to get more resources to reduce crime.”