WASHINGTON, DC — Today, I introduced an amendment to the PEACE DC Omnibus legislation that removes provisions making the Secure DC expansion of pretrial detention permanent. Because we need to face the truth, it’s a lie that pretrial detention is not making us safer, it’s destabilizing our communities and disproportionately harming Black and Brown residents in this city. What happens when someone is detained pretrial? They risk losing their job, their home, their access to their kids, the life they established. When we detain people before they’ve been convicted, we destabilize their lives. And because that burden falls disproportionately on Black and Brown residents, it makes it more likely they’ll plead guilty, even if they aren’t. That’s not justice.

The data is just as clear: Biases in our pretrial system and sentencing decisions mean that Black people charged with felonies are 26% more likely to go to prison. And while some argue that pretrial detention increases safety, data from other cities, New York, Philadelphia, Kentucky, Miami, shows us the opposite. In the long run, pretrial detention increases arrests and criminal activity. Among youth, it increases felony recidivism by 33%. Now let me address something else: the “soft on crime” narrative. That line gets thrown around a lot, usually when someone questions broken systems or refuses to rubber-stamp policies that disproportionately harm Black and Brown people. Let me be direct: that narrative is lazy, it’s political, and it’s insulting to those of us doing the hard work of building safer communities the right way. Public safety isn’t about soundbites. It’s about outcomes. And right now, the outcome tells us this approach is doing more harm than good.

Judges in DC already have the power to detain people pretrial before Peace DC or Secure DC. And they use it more than half the time. We do not have evidence that expanded pretrial detention has reduced reoffending in our city. We do have evidence that it worsens racial disparities and increases future crime. And we’re locking people into a facility the DC Auditor has called dangerous and uninhabitable. This is a moment where we need to choose evidence over fear, solutions over optics. As a Councilmember, I am unwavering in my commitment to make DC safer and to stand up for victims. But we cannot build lasting safety by destabilizing lives and ignoring what the data tells us.

I’m not saying we don’t hold people accountable. I’m saying we do it right. I’m saying we stop pretending that punishment without strategy is safety. We should be investing in what works: stability, opportunity, and real accountability, not policies that perpetuate inequity and deepen harm. I look forward to continuing to work with Councilmember Pinto and every member of this Council to advance real public safety in the District.

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