5675584 Joint Public Hearing on B21-0360, Neighborhood Engagement Achieves Results Act of 2015, B21-0357, Public Safety and Criminal Code Revisions Amendment Act of 2015, B21-0382, Bail Reform Amendment Act of 2015, B21-0384, District of Columbia ...

Council of the District of Columbia

COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARy and Committee on Health & Human Services

Notice of Joint Public Hearing

1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20004  

 

 

Councilmember Kenyan R. McDuffie, Chairperson

Committee on the Judiciary

 

and

 

Councilmember Yvette Alexander, Chairperson

Committee on Health & Human Services

                                                              

Announce a Joint Public Hearing on

 

 

B21-0360, the “Neighborhood Engagement Achieves Results Act of 2015”

 

B21-0357, the “Public Safety and Criminal Code Revisions Amendment Act of 2015”

 

B21-0382, the “Bail Reform Amendment Act of 2015”

 

B21-0384, the “District of Columbia Good Time Credits Amendment Act of 2015”

 

and

 

B21-0189, the “Police and Criminal Discovery Reform Amendment Act of 2015”

 

 

Wednesday, October 21, 2015, 1 p.m.

Room 412, John A. Wilson Building

1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.

 Washington, D.C. 20004

 

 

On Wednesday, October 21, 2015, Councilmember Kenyan R. McDuffie, Chairperson of the Committee on the Judiciary, and Councilmember Yvette Alexander, Chairperson of the Committee on Health & Human Services, will hold a public hearing on Bill 21-0360, the “Neighborhood Engagement Achieves Results Act of 2015”;  Bill 21-0357, the “Public Safety and Criminal Code Revisions Amendment Act of 2015”; Bill 21-0382, the “Bail Reform Amendment Act of 2015”; Bill 21-0384, the “District of Columbia Good Time Credits Amendment Act of 2015”; and Bill 21-0189, the “Police and Criminal Discovery Reform Amendment Act of 2015”. The hearing will take place in Room 412 of the John A. Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., at 1 p.m., or immediately following the Judiciary Committee’s hearing on body-worn cameras earlier that morning, whichever is later.

 

The stated purpose of Bill 21-0360, the “Neighborhood Engagement Achieves Results Act of 2015”, is to establish a new Office of Neighborhood Engagement and Safety to engage individuals determined to be at high risk of participating in, or being a victim of, violent criminal activity and to encourage participation in a program, incorporating evidence-based cognitive behavioral therapy, designed to discourage violent criminal activity; to establish a new Office of Violence Prevention within the Department of Health (DOH) to prepare and implement a strategy for a public health approach to violence, to conduct a public information campaign, and to embed social workers in hospital emergency rooms; to create grant-making authority for the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice (DMPSJ) to issue grants for neighborhood violence intervention and prevention program initiatives; to require data collection and analysis by the DMPSJ on felony crimes; to create a Community Crime Prevention Team Program to embed social workers in the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD); to require MPD to include training on preventing biased-based policing, limitations on the use of chokeholds and neck restraints, community policing, and the use of force in their mandatory continuing education training; to require MPD to collect stop and frisk and use of force data; to increase the period of time in which citizens have to file complaints; and to require the Office of Police Complaints (OPC) to monitor and report on the number, type, and disposition of citizen complaints, use of force incidents, and in-custody deaths.

 

The stated purpose of Bill 21-0357, the “Public Safety and Criminal Code Revisions Amendment Act of 2015”, is to provide for the consent, as a condition of their release, by individuals who committed a violent or dangerous crime and are on probation, parole, or supervised release of searches by supervision officers of the individual's residence or the individual's person while in their residence; provide that a person arrested for committing a violent or dangerous crime and who violates a condition of pretrial release requiring compliance with a stay away order or tampering with a detection device may be ordered to temporary placement in custody for a minimum of 72 hours; allow for an enhanced penalty at sentencing for violent offenses committed against a public transit passenger or committed at a Department of Parks and Recreation facility;  modify the rebuttable presumption on pretrial release of a defendant to a violent crime when the defendant has a previous conviction for a violent crime; require supervisory agencies to provide detection device information to MPD upon request; require supervisory agencies to test persons under their supervision for synthetic drug use; create an incentive program for property and business owners to install security camera systems that are enrolled with MPD; allow the

rehiring of retired MPD officers by the Department of Forensic Sciences; create incentives for the retention and recruitment of MPD officers; make it unlawful to possess or receive a firearm with an obliterated or altered serial number, to receive, possess, sell or dispose of any stolen firearm or stolen ammunition, to possess a large capacity ammunition feeding device, to possess a firearm with the intent to sell it, for a person convicted of a felony to possess ammunition, and to establish penalties for each of these violations; eliminate the rebuttable presumption created by the failure of the operator of a motor vehicle to present proof of insurance upon demand; modernize the offenses of assault on a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest; and clarify the prohibition against operating a vehicle with objects that obstruct a significant portion of the driver's view.

 

The stated purpose of Bill 21-0382, the “Bail Reform Amendment Act of 2015”, is to remove the prohibition of allowing pretrial inmates ordered by the court to work release from doing so from the Central Detention Facility or Correctional Treatment Facility.

 

The stated purpose of Bill 21-0384, the “District of Columbia Good Time Credits Amendment Act of 2015”, is to increase the number of credits a misdemeanant inmate can earn from eight to ten per calendar month.

 

The stated purpose of Bill 21-0189, the “Police and Criminal Discovery Reform Amendment Act of 2015”, is to outline what information must be disclosed between the government and defendant in a criminal prosecution during the discovery process, including certain relevant written and recorded statements, electronically stored information, reports of examinations and tests, and a copy of the defendant's prior criminal record; provide what information must be disclosed regarding proposed expert witnesses and exculpatory evidence; provide deposition rights of the defendant; establish misdemeanors for those guilty of certain crimes against law enforcement officers; require OPC to monitor information related to citizen complaints and conduct periodic reviews of MPD compliance; and create and mandate eyewitness identification procedures. 

 

The Committee invites the public to testify or to submit written testimony. Anyone wishing to testify at the hearing should contact Kate Mitchell, Judiciary Committee Director, at [phone], or via e-mail at [e-mail], and provide their name, telephone number, organizational affiliation, title (if any), and the number of the bill about which they would like to testify by close of business, October 19, 2015. Representatives of organizations will be allowed a maximum of five minutes for oral testimony, and individuals will be allowed a maximum of three minutes. Witnesses should bring twenty copies of their written testimony and, if possible, also submit a copy of their testimony electronically to [e-mail].

 

For witnesses who are unable to testify at the hearing, written statements will be made part of the official record. Copies of written statements should be submitted either to the Judiciary Committee or to Nyasha Smith, Secretary to the Council, 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Suite 5, Washington, D.C. 20004.  The record will close at the end of the business day on October 30, 2015.