D. C. Criminal Reforms to Immediately Make Everyone Safe Act of 2025
This bill, titled the DC CRIMES Act of 2025, makes several changes to how youth offenders are defined and treated in the District of Columbia, and it creates a new public, online data portal on juvenile crime. Key changes include narrowing “youth offender” status to individuals under 18 (removing 18–24-year-olds from that category), tightening rules to ensure sentences for youth offenders meet mandatory minimum terms, and establishing a publicly accessible website that tracks detailed juvenile crime statistics. The bill also requires the sharing of juvenile case, social, and law enforcement records with the Attorney General to populate the website, with privacy protections to avoid exposing personally identifiable information. It also asserts that the District of Columbia Council cannot enact changes to existing criminal liability sentences, limiting legislative adjustments to sentencing. In short, the act moves toward harsher treatment for young adults beyond age 17, increases transparency about juvenile crime through a comprehensive, continually updated data portal, and restricts the Council’s ability to modify sentencing, all with a strong emphasis on public reporting and accountability.
Key Points
- 1Limit youth offender status to individuals under 18 years old.
- 2- Replaces the current cutoff of 24 years or younger with a strict under-18 standard.
- 3- Removes 18–24-year-olds from youth-focused facilities, treatment plans, and services in related provisions.
- 4Prohibit sentences shorter than the mandatory minimum for youth offenders.
- 5- Reforms the sentencing provisions to ensure youth offenders cannot receive sentences below the statutory minimum terms.
- 6Establish a publicly accessible website with updated juvenile crime statistics.
- 7- The site must include annual counts of juvenile arrests, demographic breakdowns, petty crimes (vandalism, theft, shoplifting), violent crimes, first offenses, prior arrests, prior-arrest counts, prosecution declination rates, sentencing outcomes (including how many juveniles were tried as adults), and sentence lengths.
- 8- Updates are required monthly, with an archival system for historical data and a machine-readable format for bulk download.
- 9- Personal identifying information for juveniles must be protected.
- 10Data sharing from juvenile records to the Attorney General for website purposes.
- 11- Requires by-law changes to allow the AG to obtain juvenile case records, juvenile social records, and law enforcement records for inclusion on the website, notwithstanding some existing privacy restrictions.
- 12Effective date.
- 13- The website must be established within 180 days after enactment.
- 14Congressional instruction related to sentencing changes.
- 15- The bill’s title and text indicate a provision to prohibit the Council of the District of Columbia from enacting changes to existing criminal liability sentences, effectively limiting local legislative adjustments to sentencing.