# H.R. 4922 (119th): DC Criminal Reforms to Immediately Make Everyone Safe Act or the DC CRIMES Act

DC Criminal Reforms to Immediately Make Everyone Safe Act or the DC CRIMES Act 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.

## How this bill is scored

Tier: no Tier 1 record. A bill with no record cannot newly become Tier 1.
Lane: crime_data_transparency. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Lane: criminal_justice. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Lane: dc_governance. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Lane: justice. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Lane: law_enforcement. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Lane: public_safety. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Lane: sentencing. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Lane: youth_offenders. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Tier 1 sign-off: no record. A bill with no record cannot newly become Tier 1.
Stored polarity: mixed. Only tags the rules mark scoreable on a mixed bill are scored. A yea can draw a penalty or a credit according to the tag. A nay on a tag scored as good can draw a penalty.
Roll 270: On Passage. Vote type: final_passage.
Polarity rationale: Reviewed enrichment (llm_import) polarity: The bill combines legitimate public-safety and accountability goals, such as limiting leniency for certain youth offenders and publishing crime data, with real concerns about federal overriding of local sentencing authority and reduced judicial discretion under mandatory minimums. It does not directly advance a named moral harm, nor does it clearly restrain one. The existing metadata is thin, but the title and summary support a prudent high-level mixed classification.
Theological note: This bill raises issues of civil authority and general equity in punishment: whether sentences are proportionate, whether youth offenders are given room for rehabilitation, whether public safety is protected, and whether a national legislature should override a local government's sentencing choices. Scripture grounds civil justice in order and the protection of the innocent, and it also calls for mercy and measured punishment. These considerations are prudential and contested rather than a clear case of direct moral evil or a clear defense of justice.

## Recorded votes

Roll 270: On Passage. Yea 240 · Nay 179 · Other 13.

HTML: https://justmeasure.org/bill/hr-4922-119/