The D.C. Council on Tuesday gave unanimous initial approval to a sweeping rewrite of the city’s criminal code, while also delaying — again — a requirement that many school kids get the COVID-19 vaccine.

The vote on the 450-page bill that completely overhauls D.C.’s criminal code marks a step towards concluding a process that has stretched over 16 years and aimed to refine and clarify offenses and penalties in a comprehensive fashion for the first time since Congress wrote them 120 years ago.

Councilmember Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), who chairs the council’s judiciary committee and shepherded the mammoth bill submitted by the D.C. Criminal Code Revision Commission through the legislative process, called it a “monumental, consequential piece of legislation.”

“Congress and many councils have passed many laws and created many crimes [since 1901], but a comprehensive rewrite has never happened,” he said. “As a result, our criminal laws are a mess.”

The overhaul clarifies the definitions of many crimes, adjusts penalties and adds gradations based on the severity of the offense, and removes old terms and outdated crimes. It also restores the right to a jury trial for anyone charged with a misdemeanor; eliminates all mandatory minimum sentences spare for first-degree murder; and expands the ability of people serving prison sentences to petition a judge for early release.

While much of the overhaul proceeded with little conflict or controversy, certain provisions did draw criticism from opposing sides of the criminal justice system, from the U.S. Attorney for D.C. to the Public Defender Service for the District. Prosecutors argued against some penalty reductions, while public defenders insisted that the rewritten criminal code still relied too heavily on prison sentences.

More recently, Mayor Muriel Bowser and D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee urged Allen to remove the expansion of the jury trial from the final bill over concerns about D.C. Superior Court’s capacity to handle that many new cases; they also argued against what they said were overly lenient penalties for certain gun crimes.

In response, Allen said that the overhaul’s changes wouldn’t take effect until 2025, and that the expansion of the jury trials would be phased in even more slowly, through 2030. He also said that he did make compromises in certain cases, from keeping carjacking as a stand-alone offense (as opposed to relying on the robbery charge for the offense, as many states do) and retaining the mandatory minimum sentence of 24 years for first-degree murder.

“This will never satisfy every single person on every single issue,” he said during a brief debate Tuesday on the overhaul. “This is not meant to be the perfect solution… but a strong step forward.”

The council will cast a second and final vote on the overhaul of the criminal code later this month or early next month, after which it will be sent to Bowser for her signature and then on to Congress for its review.

Another delay to COVID-19 vaccine mandate for school kids

Lawmakers also approved an emergency bill from Councilmember Christina Henderson (I-At Large) that further delays enforcement of the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for kids 12 and up until the start of the 2023 school year, a year later than was initially planned when the council passed the mandate into law in late 2021.

The mandate had already been delayed by five months in late August amidst a city push to get school kids caught up on routine immunizations. Afterwards, an October council hearing exposed problems some schools were having in tracking student immunizations, and also disparities in COVID-19 vaccination rates that left some lawmakers concerned that Black and Latino students could disproportionately be removed from school in Jan. 2023 when delayed enforcement was set to begin.

As of this fall, non-compliance with the COVID-19 vaccine mandate ranged from 40% to more than 60% in certain schools, while non-compliance with other routine immunizations was far lower. In April, California similarly delayed its own COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

“We must make policy as realists, and the reality of the situation is that the information vacuum created by the pandemic also created opportunities for falsehoods to flourish. We have to meet people where they are, and many people still aren’t ready to accept this particular treatment. We also don’t want to exclude students from the classroom… after working so hard to get them back into school in person,” said Henderson, who authored the initial vaccine mandate when it was passed last year.

Councilmember Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2), though, opposed the bill, saying that COVID-19 vaccines have been proven to be safe and effective and delaying enforcement would only make it less likely that people would comply. “By extending the deadline once again, we are jeopardizing our ability to enforce other vaccine mandates down the line and we are unintentionally feeding into vaccine misinformation that they are not effective,” she said.

Other lawmakers said the vote on the bill was difficult no matter what they decided.

“We want children vaccinated,” said Allen. “We’re also faced with the reality that tens of thousands of students would not be able to be in school, and facing the stark and steep reality that would have on them… the resources, the connections, the supports. This is a tough one. I believe the harm of having that many kids being pulled out of school would be incredibly detrimental.”

Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3), who ultimately voted “present” on the bill, said the council was risking sending the wrong message to families that were holding out on getting the vaccine.

“The anti-vaxxers are having their day on this, and I think we add to this by saying we’re not going to require it. The same is true of other vaccinations: they may have qualms, but do they have the right to subject other people to sickness? If COVID is still serious, we should still take steps and require vaccinations. If there are obstacles, we should overcome them. I’m not sure we have taken all the steps we can to get people to comply,” she said.

Only Chairman Phil Mendelson used the debate to raise the possibility that the council may eventually repeal the vaccine mandate altogether.

“This looked like something that would be picked up across the country,” he said, referring to when the council approved the mandate in late 2021. “We seemed to be in step and following the science. A year later, and where is the science? The CDC website does not say a mandate is what they recommend. The pandemic is evolving into more of an endemic.”