House approves bills to reshape DC’s criminal justice system

The House passed legislation Tuesday that would overhaul how youth who commit crimes are prosecuted in the District of Columbia as congressional Republicans mobilized behind President Donald Trump’s efforts to crack down on crime in the nation’s capital.

One of the bills, called the “DC Crimes Act,” would lower the age of a youth offender in the federal district from 24 to 18 and require that criminal sentencing be at least as long as the mandatory minimums for adults, overruling local D.C. policy. It would also require the D.C. attorney general to establish a public website that would publish statistics on youth criminal acts.