CCE Releases Educational Fact Sheets on Key D.C. Legal Systems and Laws

September 9, 2025 - This month, amid heightened public attention on D.C.'s courts, legal systems, and Home Rule, CCE is releasing a series of educational fact sheets focused on different aspects of D.C. criminal law, youth justice, and legal systems that are receiving local and national attention.

As an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that has been working in D.C. for more than 40 years, CCE is seeking to provide factual and evidence-based information on D.C.’s laws and policies to the public, the media, and policymakers.

Here are links to the current Fact Sheets and some key take-aways from each:

Risk-Based Pretrial Detention in D.C. (Bail)

• D.C. outperforms the national average in pretrial safety and court appearance.
• Judges already consider risk to public safety and likelihood of returning to court before releasing someone.
• Only 1% of people released pretrial are rearrested for a violent offense, and less than 11% overall were rearrested for any type of charge, demonstrating the effectiveness of the current system for public safety. 

Record Sealing and Expungement in D.C.

• Eligible individuals can petition to seal some misdemeanors, old convictions, and non-conviction records after a waiting period.
• People who go years without reoffending pose no more risk than those with no record.
• Most people with sealed or expunged records do not recidivate.

Charging Youth As Adults in D.C. (Title 16)

• Research shows that children charged as adults are more likely to reoffend than youth charged in the juvenile delinquency system.
• D.C. allows prosecutors to charge 16–17-year-olds as adults without a hearing for murder, first degree sexual abuse, first degree burglary, armed robbery, or intent to commit any of these offenses.
• Most states offer more judicial discretion than D.C. currently allows.

Hybrid Justice Systems & D.C.’s Youth Rehabilitation Act (YRA)

• Judges have discretion in whether to apply the YRA; it’s not automatic.
• People sentenced under the YRA have lower recidivism rates than those sentenced under adult guidelines.
• Rolling back the YRA would increase recidivism and worsen long-term outcomes.

D.C.’s Incarceration Reduction Amendment Act and Second Look Amendment Acts (IRAA and SLAA)

• D.C.’s laws allow people who were under 25 at the time of their offense and have served at least 15 years to petition for resentencing, which judges evaluate using at least 11 statutory factors including conduct while incarcerated, victim input, and public safety risk.
• Fewer than 3% of individuals released under IRAA or SLAA have been rearrested and convicted of a new crime, which is notably lower than recidivism rates for other released populations.
• D.C.’s approach aligns with recommendations from the American Law Institute and the American Bar Association, which support sentence review after 10–15 years.

CCE hopes these resources are helpful to anyone who wants to learn more about how existing D.C. laws work and are applied; how D.C. compares to other parts of the United States; and what research and data show about these topics.