Dream.Org Statement on President Biden Agreeing to Sign Bill to Rescind The Revised Criminal Code Act of 2022
March 03, 2023
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In response to President Biden’s statement Thursday affirming he would not veto legislation overturning DC’s criminal code update, Dream.Org Justice National Director Janos Marton released the following:
“We are very disappointed that President Biden has agreed to sign the bill to rescind The Revised Criminal Code Act of 2022 (RCCA) and hope that he will immediately reconsider. The RCCA would unquestionably make DC safer. At the most basic level the RCAA was bringing long-needed updates to the criminal code and most of the adjusted sentence lengths were painstakingly vetted, evidence-based, and widely supported by the people of the District of Columbia.
Preventing crime is the best way to make our communities safer and reduce incarceration. In fact, that was what candidate Joe Biden promised when he ran for president in 2020 as part of his promise to reduce incarceration and increase community investment. Maintaining long sentences and tough penalties are inefficient and counterproductive ways to reduce crime, and the money spent on longer sentences would be better spent on more direct and timely interventions.
The RCCA is evidence-based painstakingly and thoughtfully crafted code and it is overwhelmingly supported by the people of DC. Every one of us should support democracy, home-rule, and the people of the District of Columbia by defending the RCCA, starting with President Biden.”
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ABOUT DREAM.ORG
Dream.Org is a bipartisan effort to transform justice across the country. We bring together leaders impacted by the criminal justice system with unlikely allies spanning the political divide to push for criminal justice solutions.
Janos Marton, Justice National Director
Janos Marton is a born and raised New Yorker. He has spent his career fighting for racial justice and taking on corruption – as a civil rights lawyer, special counsel to the Moreland Commission to Investigate Corruption, and as attorney investigating police misconduct for the City of New York. In 2016 he was named the first advocacy director of JustLeadershipUSA, where he managed the historic #CLOSErikers campaign. Marton then ran criminal justice programs across the country for the ACLU. As a candidate for Manhattan District Attorney in 2020, Marton ran on a bold platform to use prison as a last resort, receiving praise for groundbreaking policies that became the gold standard in the race.
