DC CRIMES Act of 2024
Sponsored by Byron Donalds
Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
May 16, 2024
This bill restricts the District of Columbia government's ability to modify criminal sentencing laws by eliminating its authority to change any criminal liability sentence that was in effect when the bill becomes law. It lowers the maximum age for a person to be classified as a youth offender from 24 years to 18 years. The bill preserves existing court discretion to reduce or modify sentences for youth offenders under certain circumstances, except for specified violent crimes. It also requires the D.C. Office of the Attorney General to publish and update monthly data on youth offender crimes on a publicly accessible website.
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D.C. Criminal Reforms to Immediately Make Everyone Safe Act of 2024 or the DC CRIMES Act of 2024 This bill limits the authority of the District of Columbia (DC) government over its criminal sentencing laws. The bill eliminates the DC government’s authority to enact any act, resolution, or rule to change any criminal liability sentence in effect on the date of the bill's enactment. The bill also reduces the maximum age of a youth offender from 24 years to 18 years. A DC criminal court currently has the discretion to reduce or modify certain criminal sentences for a youth offender under specified circumstances. For example, a DC court may sentence a youth offender to probation in lieu of confinement. (However, this discretion does not apply to several specified violent crimes.) Additionally, the bill directs the Office of the Attorney General for DC to publish, and update monthly, certain youth offender crime data on a publicly accessible website.