More than a dozen bills making their way through the U.S. House challenge District home rule by, among other things, making the D.C. attorney a presidential appointee, extending the congressional approval period for locally approved laws, and allowing 14-year-old offenders to be charged as adults.
Also on the chopping block is the Incarceration Reduction Amendment Act (IRAA), a bill the D.C. Council passed nearly a decade ago to allow those convicted as juveniles to petition for early release after serving at least 15 years of their federal prison sentence. During a markup session conducted in the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform last week, Congressional Republicans opted to proactively nullify the law, which erases any possibility for future juvenile offenders to petition for their early release.
As James Carpenter explained, such an outcome, if approved and signed in law, would unfairly target a population of D.C. residents eager to improve their communities.
“They just don’t understand the support that we give one another, how we provide resources for one another,” said Carpenter, one of several District returning citizens who reduced his sentence through IRAA. “I wish they could just come and just see how this whole process goes and just see some of the work that a lot of us are doing so they can appreciate our presence in the community.”
In 2020, Carpenter returned home after serving nearly half of a 54-year prison sentence that started when he was 17 years old. He told The Informer that, while incarcerated, he thought about his turbulent upbringing and circumstances of his conviction, all while maintaining contact with his sister who, after testifying before the D.C. Council in support of IRAA, told him about the law.
Since leaving the federal prison system, Carpenter has reacclimated himself to life on the outside. He’s also been a constant figure at D.C. Superior Court, where he supports IRAA petitioners at hearings where a judge determines whether their sentence will be reduced.
Such was the case on Friday, two days after the 10-hour committee markup that threw IRAA to the wind.
As he walked into D.C. Superior Court, Carpenter lambasted congressional Republicans for, as he described it, tipping the scale in criminal justice matters that District residents have examined at length. IRAA, he said, represents an acknowledgement among local lawmakers that punitive law enforcement, like what the Trump administration is demanding, doesn’t address the root causes of crime.
“We’re trying to have a type of law enforcement that’s more in line with the modern sentencing structures that factors in all aspects of a person’s crime, not just the crime itself, but their life, how they grew up, their upbringing, and whatever else,” Carpenter told The Informer.
As House leaders prepare to bring some of the bills up for a vote in the coming weeks, activists and local officials are leveraging their influence and proximity to Capitol Hill to counter these attempts to control the District.
Carpenter predicted that such efforts won’t go in vain.
“I’m just hoping that through the democratic process, we can push back on this and just be let alone,” Carpenter told The Informer. “Let us deal with our local laws the way we deem necessary. If we feel like the sentencing structure is weaker, then we have people in place that will address that on the city council. And if they don’t, then we can vote them out.”
The Ill-Fated House Committee Markup, as Recounted by Advocates
Throughout much of Sept. 10, several D.C. residents and activists flooded the halls of Congress and later the room where, for more than 10 hours, members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform approved more than a dozen bills aimed at further consolidating congressional and executive control of the District’s public safety ecosystem.
Tracy Velazquez, one of several people who attended, and later watched the online stream of the committee markup said D.C. residents, by virtue of their physical presence, pleaded their cause before a legislative body largely unfamiliar with the nuances of local laws.
“It just shows the level of concern [about] the current situation,” Velazquez told The Informer. “We hope that as these bills move forward, that congresspeople listen to the individuals and [those] who are talking about what they believe is in the best interest of the District.”
In her role as policy director of Council for Court Excellence, Velazquez has been circulating fact sheets on some of the local policies that congressional Republicans are targeting. She expressed concern about legislation that eliminates the D.C. Judicial Nomination Commission and gives the president the sole power to nominate judges for D.C. courts.
“No other city or state has their local judiciary determined in such a manner,” Velazquez said. “To have these judges who have 15-year terms appointed a president, that means long-term consequences in decision making for people in the District, not just on criminal justice, but for other matters as well.”
On Thursday night, votes fell along party lines with only one Democrat, Rep. David Min of California, supporting the mostly Republican-introduced measures.
Bills that passed included legislation that D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton introduced to allow the D.C. Council chairperson to transmit locally approved bills to Congress in any form of their choosing, including electronic.
Other measures coming out of the House committee change the congressional review process and expand the local processes that would be subject to it. House Republicans also threw their support behind a repeal of comprehensive policing legislation the D.C. Council passed after George Floyd’s murder and a measure Rep. John McGuire (R-Va.) introduced to codify President Donald J. Trump’s “Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful” executive order.
Meanwhile, Rep. Will Timmons (R- S.C.) successfully advanced a bill criminalizing sleeping in public spaces, while committee members approved a bill introduced by Texas Rep. Brandon Gill, the youngest Republican in Congress, allowing the sentencing of 14-year-old youth as adults for murder, first-degree sexual abuse, armed robbery and other violent offenses.
Another bill introduced by Rep. Elise Stefenik (R-N.Y.) requires pre-trial detention and post-conviction before sentencing for a violent crime, while a bill by Rep. Ray Higgins (R-La.) allows for the vehicular pursuit of a suspect fleeing in a motor vehicle.
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform also approved Rep. David Kustoff’s (R-Tenn.) bill, aimed at IRAA and the Second Chance Amendment Act of 2022, by a 24-20 vote. As Velazquez recounted, congressional Republicans, in the hours leading up to the votes on the measures, highlighted perspectives not of the local community.
“It would be nice to believe that they have visited all eight wards, thought about these policies and talked with people— not just our D.C. Council and mayor, but also folks across the District,” Velazquez said. “It seemed like many of the people that they talked to were those in the downtown area who may not be representative of all District residents.”
On the day of the committee markup, at least one returning citizen had the chance to speak with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a congressional committee member who, according to Politico, referred to the District as a city of crime during the hours-long hearing.
That returning citizen, Colie Long, told The Informer that he took a moment to remind Greene about their 2022 encounter when she and other congressional members visited D.C. Jail in response to concerns that Jan. 6 defendants raised about conditions.
As Long recounted, Greene reacted positively in the halls of Congress upon learning that Long, the man she saw in an orange jumpsuit, is living a productive life as a free man.
“When I reminded her [about] that conversation [at D.C. Jail], I saw that spark of recognition,” Long told The Informer. “I [asked her] to allow her conscience to [take her back] to when she met me and what she told me versus what she’s saying now in Congress.”
These days, Long, known to many as Shaka, serves as a program associate at the Georgetown University Prisons and Justice Initiative. He’s also a safe passage worker who operates in the area surrounding Maya Angelou Public Charter School on East Capitol Street.
In 2022, when he met Greene at D.C. Jail, Long counted among those in the federal prison system scheduled for early parole due to COVID-era sentencing guideline changes.
Though he petitioned for an early release through the Second Look Amendment Act, legislation that expanded the age of IRAA eligibility to 25, a judge denied him that type of relief, instead opting to grant him regular parole with what Long called more stringent guidelines.
Two years later however, Long appealed the judge’s decision, becoming the first returning citizen to benefit from the Second Look Amendment Act after coming home from prison. That decision, he said, set the stage for at least three other returning citizens to be granted early release under the Second Look Act, rather than through the parole board.
“My argument was that even though you see a parole examiner, that doesn’t guarantee that you come home,” Long told The Informer. “Even if you have a Second Look [petition], that doesn’t guarantee as well, but your chance is better coming home with the IRAA or Second Look, versus arbitrary decisions from one parole examiner.”
Republican House leadership expressed plans to bring some of the measures up to a vote in the coming weeks. While passage in the House seems imminent, it remains uncertain whether the bills would advance in the Senate. In the interim, Long said he and others who came home through IRAA and the Second Look Amendment Act will continue to make an appeal to congressional leaders that keeping the laws as is ensures the best outcome for generations still reeling from the crack epidemic.
“The overall strategy for us is to have each individual that comes home have agency over the narrative about their journey and the collective journey of justice-impacted people to show that we’re an asset versus a liability in the struggle to reduce crime,” Long said. “The reality is that a lot of these crimes that happen in the first place come from a state of poverty, whether it’s physical poverty, the lack of money or stability. We’re in a position to be cycle breakers.”
Velazquez echoed Long’s sentiments, telling The Informer that, without a holistic perspective on public safety in the District, congressional Republicans stand to upend the progress collectively made by local officials, returning citizens and several others.
“They don’t address the underlying issues that many people in D.C. face,” Velazquez said about the bills approved by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. “When they are focusing on a set of policies that are more about punishment than prevention, I don’t believe they’re going to get the result that they are aiming for.”
Another IRAA Beneficiary Speaks, While Bowser Administration Mum on Law
On Sept. 18 — one week after the Trump administration’s federalization of the Metropolitan Police Department ended — D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D), and D.C.
Attorney General Brian Schwalb are scheduled to appear before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
Earlier in the summer, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro sent a letter to members of the D.C. Council asking that they “reconsider” IRAA, the Second Chance Amendment Act, and the Youth Rehabilitation Act. The Informer has since attempted, quite unsuccessfully, to gather comment from the Bowser administration about its position on the legislation.
Though Bowser, at the beginning of MPD federalization period in August, directed The Washington Informer to the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice for more information, the office hasn’t responded to a request for comment.
Robert Barton, an IRAA beneficiary who helps others navigate the petition process, credits the law with giving D.C. residents in the federal prison system hope about their situation. In making his point, Barton spoke about a fellow federal prison resident who, upon seeing Barton return home early, pursued his GED and enrolled in college-level courses.
“In a lot of ways, IRAA has changed the federal system,” Barton said. “Guys from D.C. are pretty much changing how they do it because they know they have an opportunity to come home.”
In 2017, a D.C. Superior Court judge denied Barton early release at the end of a process where his record came under scrutiny and family members of those affected by his crime submitted testimony. In the years between his denial and eventual release, Barton depended on a network of family and supporters on the outside to file paperwork.
After a second petition, Barton would eventually return home from a nearly 30-year prison sentence that started at the age of 16. With the one-year anniversary of his release soon approaching, Barton told The Informer that he’s getting used to the demands of the outside world that, at times, prevented family members from maintaining consistent communication during his incarceration.
“From our perspective, it’s like what’s so hard about taking 10 minutes to sit down and write a letter but people really don’t have the time,” Barton said. “I’m realizing that since I’ve been home, things are moving fast. My friends [are] calling me and I don’t have the time to do the things that they want me to do because I’m trying to get my own life.”
Barton, who’s since founded an organization named More Than Our Crimes, said he spent much of this time behind bars reflecting on his upbringing in Anacostia where, despite a desire to attend college and study mathematics, he succumbed to the allure of the streets.
He pointed out that he and several other IRAA recipients have gone through a similar thought process that gives them a deeper appreciation for freedom. That’s why, despite congressional Republicans’ assertions that District youth are unredeemable, Barton continues to speak about the power of second chances for young people born into circumstances not of their making.
“No child is born a criminal,” Barton said. “In a lot of ways, they don’t have control over their impulsivity and their environments. I committed this crime, but this is not who I am. I’m a father, a son, a community leader and advocate. I am not that person I was when I was 16 years old.”