Public witnesses urge D.C. council to wait before making pretrial-detention expansion permanent

Council Member Brooke Pinto, chairwoman of the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety, opened a public hearing April 23 to discuss portions of her PeaceDC package, including the Pretrial Detention Amendment Act of 2025. Pinto said the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC) is producing a report on the emergency changes and that the committee will not move the bill before the CJCC report is released on May 7.

The bill would make permanent a rebuttable presumption allowing pretrial detention for people charged with crimes of violence — a policy the council put in place temporarily in 2023 under the Prioritizing Public Safety emergency measure and then in the Secure DC omnibus package. Pinto said the change is intended to give judges an additional tool in “the most egregious cases,” but vowed to await the CJCC data before further action.

The majority of public testimony opposed making the expansion permanent. Alicia Yoss, Supervising Policy Counsel at ACLU DC, told the…