WASHINGTON – Today, the D.C. Council voted to pass the Peace DC Omnibus Amendment Act of 2025 (Bill 26-187), the Juvenile Curfew Emergency Amendment Act of 2025 (Bill 26-286), and the Residential Tranquility Amendment Act of 2025 (Bill 26-189). In response, ACLU-D.C. Supervising Policy Counsel Alicia Yass said:
“Every District resident deserves safety and security. But several bills passed by the D.C. Council today rely on failed methods to address crime and ultimately do not keep us safe from abuse of power.
"We applaud the D.C. Council for sunsetting dangerous pretrial detention provisions of the PEACE DC Omnibus Emergency Amendment Act at the end of 2026. We particularly thank Councilmembers Kenyan McDuffie and Matthew Frumin for introducing the accepted amendment and Councilmembers Robert White and Janeese Lewis George for introducing earlier amendments on pretrial detention.
"But sunsetting pretrial detention is not enough because if preventing crime is the goal, pretrial detention is not the way. We know that pretrial releases are not driving crime in the District: 92 percent of people released pretrial are not rearrested, and only 1 percent are rearrested for a violent offense while awaiting trial. Locking more people up pretrial can have a negative effect on public safety, by separating people from their support networks, jobs, and housing. Even short periods of unnecessary detention increase a person's risk of re-arrest. The Council’s own racial equity office shows that pretrial detention does not decrease crime and could in fact lead to increased crime. The racial equity office report also showed that the District’s Black residents would once again bear the brunt of increased pretrial detention.
"Pretrial detention also means that more people are locked up at the D.C. Jail, where between the summers of 2023 and 2024, people died at three times the national rate. D.C. Jail residents have been trapped in cells and regularly face intolerable conditions, including sewage backups, inoperable toilets, broken locks, exposed wiring and blocked drains, mold and vermin infestations, water leaking through the walls, and broken smoke detectors.
"The District should not be using a jail with horrific conditions to lock more people up who have not even been found guilty of a crime. We all have the constitutional right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. Pretrial detention does just the opposite – it treats certain people as guilty until proven innocent.
"Similarly, we remain concerned about Mayor Bowser’s emergency juvenile curfew bill, even with the important amendments that Councilmember Zachary Parker introduced. If we want our kids and communities to be safe, the District should invest in programs that give young people options for safe, pro-social, developmentally appropriate, educational, and career-promoting programming. Our leaders cannot keep turning to police and jails as the solution to every issue. The truth is that an 8pm curfew puts kids at risk. What safeguards are in place to protect Black and brown kids from officers who assume that they are 'trouble,' but that white kids are not? What sense does it make to target kids instead of providing programs where they can be kids?
"We also remain concerned about the so-called Residential Tranquility Amendment Act of 2025, which targets protest at a time when our free speech is already at risk. Instead of encouraging the Chief of Police to enforce existing noise regulations, this bill singles out demonstrations to police over noise. Limiting people’s right to protest at this historical moment will not make D.C. any safer, and we thank Councilmembers Zachary Parker and Brianne Nadeau for voting against this bill.
"We urge all D.C. leaders to meet this moment by strengthening our rights, liberties, and community resources. The ACLU-D.C. will be doing our part by continuing to educate our communities about the rights we have and what to do if those rights have been violated."
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