Press Release

DC, March 26, 2026: Washington, D.C.'s Incarceration Reduction Amendment Act (IRAA) is working and the evidence is undeniable. IRAA gives judges the tools to evaluate rehabilitation, account for the maturity that comes with time, and ensure that individuals who no longer pose a danger to the public have a meaningful path home. This is not leniency. It is sound policy, grounded in decades of research showing that people age out of violent crime as they mature.

The results speak for themselves. IRAA recipients are returning to their families, stepping into roles as safe-passage workers and violence interrupters, and contributing to the local economy through stable employment. Most strikingly, the recidivism rate among IRAA recipients stands at roughly 3 percent, a figure that dwarfs the national average and reflects the law's careful, individualized design. That design matters. The D.C. Council built IRAA around eleven statutory factors, requiring courts to conduct thorough, case-by-case reviews of each individual's rehabilitation, risk level, and community support. Earning relief under IRAA is not a formality. It demands months and sometime years of in-depth programming, release planning, and community-building. These individuals do the hard work long before they ever see a courtroom

Critics who suggest that sentence reductions under IRAA threaten public safety misread both the law and the evidence. IRAA requires demonstrated genuine rehabilitation. Furthermore, research from the U.S. Department of Justice makes clear that extremely long sentences have little deterrent effect on future crime.¹ What actually promotes public safety is what IRAA does: holding people accountable, recognizing real growth, and safely reuniting individuals with their families and communities.

Lastly, IRAA saves the government millions per year by no longer housing individuals that no longer pose a danger or risk to the community.² Continuing to incarcerate people decades after they have demonstrated rehabilitation is not only unjust, it I waste tax payers money.

¹ Five Things About Deterrence, National Institute of Justice, May 2016. (https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/247350.pdf)

² Annual Determination of Average Cost of Incarceration Fee (COIF), 90 Fed. Reg. 85, (Dec. 15, 2025) (to be codified at 28 C.F.R. pt. 505).