Analysis of Pretrial Detention Before and After Secure DC

Please note: This report only contains analysis of the adult pretrial detention provisions in Secure DC. DC Superior Court has not authorized the public release of the analysis of the juvenile pretrial detention provisions due to concerns regarding juvenile confidentiality.

 

Executive Summary

Purpose:

Two recent pieces of legislation have expanded eligibility for pretrial detention in the District of Columbia: the Prioritizing Public Safety Emergency Amendment Act of 2023 (PPSEA) and the Secure DC Omnibus Amendment Act of 2024 (Secure DC). This report provides data on adult defendants whose charges are subject to the pretrial detention provisions in Secure DC; among those defendants, those who were released pretrial; and among those defendants released, an analysis of rearrests while on pretrial release.

 

Methodology:

CJCC used aggregate data provided by the Pretrial Services Agency for the section of the report on adult defendants. The unit of analysis for adults is at the case level. In this report, CJCC provides analyses from subsets of the time before PPSEA, between PPSEA and Secure DC, and after Secure DC that are of equal length and occupy the same months of the year, as follows:

 

•     Before PPSEA: August 1, 2022, to January 31, 2023

•     Between PPSEA and Secure DC: August 1, 2023, to January 31, 2024

•     After Secure DC: August 1, 2024, to January 31, 2025

 

For the analysis of adult rearrests while on pretrial release, PSA included rearrests that were papered; no-papered rearrests were not included in the data PSA provided.

 

Finally, DC statutes define which crimes are classified as crimes of violence or dangerous crimes. For offenses that are classified as both crimes of violence and dangerous crimes, CJCC has included those charges with other offenses classified as crimes of violence alone. This is done to avoid double-counting those offenses or creating a third category of cross-classified offenses.

 

Limitations:

1.    This report cannot identify accurately the number of adult defendants who were subject to the rebuttable presumption of detention.

2.    This report cannot be used to determine whether the changes in the law caused changes in the numbers of defendants held pretrial.

3.    This report cannot attribute changes in public safety over the last several years to the changes in pretrial detention provisions under PPSEA or Secure DC.

 

Findings:

•     Adult charges: Across these three time periods, between 7-10% of cases arraigned were for a crime of violence, between 12-16% were for a dangerous crime, and 74-80% were for neither a violent nor dangerous offense. The number of arraignments for all types of charges increased by over 1,000 cases in each subsequent time period. The number of arraigned cases that were for crimes of violence or dangerous crimes increased between the first and second time periods before decreasing in the third time period, while the numbers of cases that were neither dangerous nor violent increased in each time period.

•     Pretrial release or detention among adult defendants who were detained at arraignment: While there does not appear to be a meaningful change in the percentage of adult defendants who were detained following a detention hearing between the first and second time periods (52% and 51%), the percentage of defendants detained after a detention hearing increased from 51% to 65% between the second and third time periods, while the percentage of defendants released to the Pretrial Services Agency decreased from 49% to 35% between the second and third time periods.

•     Papered rearrests among adult defendants charged with a crime of violence or dangerous crime: Before PPSEA, among adult defendants charged with a crime of violence or dangerous crime who were detained at arraignment and subsequently released, 11 (6%) were rearrested while on pretrial release, while between PPSEA and Secure DC, 17 (5%) were rearrested, and after Secure DC, 7 (3%) were rearrested. Across all three time periods, 1% or less of released defendants had a papered rearrest for a crime of violence or a dangerous crime. The numbers of these adult defendants with a papered rearrest while on pretrial release was too low across all three time periods to detect meaningful patterns in the time to rearrest.