D. C. Criminal Reforms to Immediately Make Everyone Safe Act of 2025
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Would restrict Washington, D.C.'s criminal justice autonomy in three ways: lowering the maximum age for youth-offender status from 24 to under 18, eliminating D.C. court discretion to sentence young offenders below mandatory minimums, and barring the D.C. Council from changing existing criminal liability sentences.
The bill also would require the D.C. Attorney General to publish monthly juvenile crime statistics — including arrest rates, prosecution declination rates, and sentencing outcomes — on a publicly accessible, machine-readable website.
What this bill would do
What it would do
The bill would make three operative changes to criminal justice in the District of Columbia. First, it would amend the Youth Rehabilitation Act of 1985 to redefine "youth offender" as anyone under 18 years of age, down from the current ceiling of 24. Second, it would repeal the provision that allows D.C. courts to impose a sentence shorter than the mandatory minimum on youth offenders, removing that downward departure discretion. Third, the bill's long title and the CRS summary indicate it would amend the D.C. Home Rule Act to prohibit the D.C. Council from enacting any legislation that changes an existing criminal liability sentence.
Separately, the bill would direct the D.C. Attorney General to create and maintain a publicly accessible website reporting detailed juvenile crime data — total arrests, breakdowns by age, race, and sex, first-offense rates, prosecution declination rates, and sentencing lengths — updated monthly and archived indefinitely in machine-readable form. Personally identifiable information about juveniles would be prohibited from appearing on the site.
Key provisions
- 1Would redefine 'youth offender' in D.C. law to apply only to individuals under 18 years of age, down from the current ceiling of 24.
- 2Would repeal the provision allowing D.C. courts to impose a sentence shorter than the mandatory minimum term on a youth offender.
- 3Would prohibit the D.C. Council from enacting any legislation that changes an existing criminal liability sentence, per the bill's long title and CRS summary.
- 4Would require the D.C. Attorney General to establish a publicly accessible website reporting detailed juvenile crime and prosecution statistics, updated monthly.
- 5Would require the website to include data on arrests, demographics, offense types, declination rates, and sentencing outcomes, in machine-readable format available for bulk download.
- 6Would authorize courts and law enforcement agencies to share juvenile case, social, and arrest records with the AG solely for purposes of populating the statistics website.
Who would be affected
D.C. residents aged 18 through 24 who currently qualify as youth offenders would lose that status and its associated sentencing flexibility. D.C. criminal court judges would lose the authority to sentence below a mandatory minimum for covered youth offenders. The D.C. Council would be prohibited from revising criminal liability sentences. The D.C. Attorney General's office would take on the new website obligation.
Why it matters
Young adults aged 18-23 currently benefit from D.C.'s youth-offender sentencing regime, which can allow probation in lieu of confinement; the bill would end that eligibility entirely. D.C. courts would face a harder sentencing floor in mandatory-minimum cases involving that age group. Congress would, in effect, freeze D.C.'s criminal sentencing law in place, constraining the D.C. Council's home-rule authority over one of its core policy areas.
What would change
Changes to existing law
Amends Youth Rehabilitation Act of 1985 (D.C. Official Code sec. 24-901 et seq.) (Sec. 2)
Lowers youth-offender age ceiling from 24 to under 18, removes below-mandatory-minimum sentencing discretion for qualifying offenders, and makes conforming edits throughout.
Amends District of Columbia Home Rule Act
Would prohibit the D.C. Council from enacting any act, resolution, or rule that changes an existing criminal liability sentence.
Amends D.C. Official Code sec. 16-2331 (Juvenile case records of family court) (Sec. 3(b)(1))
Adds an exception requiring disclosure of juvenile case records to the D.C. AG for the new juvenile crime statistics website.
Amends D.C. Official Code sec. 16-2332 (Juvenile social records of family court) (Sec. 3(b)(2))
Adds an exception requiring disclosure of juvenile social records to the D.C. AG for the statistics website.
Amends D.C. Official Code sec. 16-2333 (Police and other law enforcement records) (Sec. 3(b)(3))
Adds an exception requiring law enforcement to share juvenile records and files with the D.C. AG for the statistics website.
Creates Subchapter I of chapter 23 of title 16, D.C. Official Code (Sec. 3(a))
Adds a new section 16-2340a establishing the D.C. AG's obligation to operate and archive the juvenile crime statistics website.
Agencies directed to act
Effective dates
- D.C. Attorney General must launch the juvenile crime statistics website
Funding and costs
Congressional Budget Office estimate
CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 4922 would have no cost to the federal government, because the bill's changes apply only to the District of Columbia.
H.R. 4922 would make several changes to the D.C. Code regarding youth offenders, including lowering the age threshold for "youth offender" status from 24 to 18, prohibiting sentences below mandatory minimums for youth offenders, and requiring the D.C. Attorney General to publish a public website with juvenile crime statistics. Because all of these changes affect only the District of Columbia's local legal code, CBO estimates no cost to the federal government. The estimate does not identify any intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined by the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act.
How implementation would work
The sentencing and youth-offender age changes would take effect on enactment and apply directly through amended D.C. code provisions — no rulemaking is required. The website mandate requires the D.C. Attorney General to build and launch the juvenile-crime statistics site within 180 days of enactment, drawing data from D.C. family court case records, social records, and law enforcement files, which courts and agencies would be required to share for this purpose. The AG must update the site monthly, maintain an indefinitely accessible archive, and publish all data in a machine-readable, bulk-downloadable format — without including any personally identifiable information about individual juveniles.
Legislative status & sources
Latest action
Received in the Senate.
Official CRS summary
Show the CRS summaryHide the CRS summary
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 (1) reduces the maximum age of a youth offender from 24 years to 18 years, and (2) repeals a provision that allows a DC criminal court to issue a sentence to a youth offender that is less than the mandatory minimum term otherwise required by law. 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.
Legislative subjects
Crime and Law Enforcement; Criminal justice information and records; Criminal procedure and sentencing; District of Columbia; Government information and archives; Internet, web applications, social media; Juvenile crime and gang violence