Over the last year, legislation was presented to Washington, D.C.’s city council to overhaul the city’s criminal code. It was an exhaustive change that would affect dozens of statutes on criminal sentencing guidelines that go back over a hundred years.
I'm a DC resident and no fan of the revised criminal code, but I don't think it's accurate to say "was largely crafted by an independent nonprofit organization: the D.C. Justice Lab." Where does it say that in any of the links?
You state "Sulton’s name does not appear on the website for the Criminal Code Reform Commission, now or in the past." That is factually incorrect. Sulton is listed in the meeting minutes as an employee of the Commission starting AT LEAST as early as April 2018 and those minutes are available on the CCRC's website at: https://ccrc.dc.gov/node/1201597. In addition, Sulton is described as having left employment at the CCRC in the 1/6/21 meeting minutes (https://ccrc.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/ccrc/publication/attachments/1-6-21-Meeting-Minutes.pdf).
Furthermore, there is a group of voting people on the Committee and they're listed on the CCRC's website. If the revised code really was drafted principally by DC Justice Lab (which is far from established and directly contrary to contemporary reporting) where's the accountability for those who were formally appointed to the Commission, who voted in favor of the Draft, and pushed it forward to the Council? Notably, the voting members included a rep from the USAO, who voted yes to advance the CCRC's final recommendations.
It was absolutely a clusterfuck and obviously ill-advised for the USAO rep on the CCRC to vote yes for a set of recommendations they ultimately did not want to see enacted into law. But what does DC Justice Lab have to do with that? And where were the Council members?? Oh right, voting in favor of the CCRC-backed amendments and then ALSO OVERRULING THE MAYOR'S VETO.
Who Funded D.C.'s Attempted Criminal Code Revamp
I'm a DC resident and no fan of the revised criminal code, but I don't think it's accurate to say "was largely crafted by an independent nonprofit organization: the D.C. Justice Lab." Where does it say that in any of the links?
You state "Sulton’s name does not appear on the website for the Criminal Code Reform Commission, now or in the past." That is factually incorrect. Sulton is listed in the meeting minutes as an employee of the Commission starting AT LEAST as early as April 2018 and those minutes are available on the CCRC's website at: https://ccrc.dc.gov/node/1201597. In addition, Sulton is described as having left employment at the CCRC in the 1/6/21 meeting minutes (https://ccrc.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/ccrc/publication/attachments/1-6-21-Meeting-Minutes.pdf).
Furthermore, there is a group of voting people on the Committee and they're listed on the CCRC's website. If the revised code really was drafted principally by DC Justice Lab (which is far from established and directly contrary to contemporary reporting) where's the accountability for those who were formally appointed to the Commission, who voted in favor of the Draft, and pushed it forward to the Council? Notably, the voting members included a rep from the USAO, who voted yes to advance the CCRC's final recommendations.
It was absolutely a clusterfuck and obviously ill-advised for the USAO rep on the CCRC to vote yes for a set of recommendations they ultimately did not want to see enacted into law. But what does DC Justice Lab have to do with that? And where were the Council members?? Oh right, voting in favor of the CCRC-backed amendments and then ALSO OVERRULING THE MAYOR'S VETO.
Overall -- very, very thin.