Evidence Has Shown For a Decade That Longer Sentences Don’t Reduce Crime
On Monday Lisa Legal moved this story about new legislation proposed in Congress to combat crime in Washington DC. The world has seen that President Trump has moved the National Guard into our nation’s capital, and 4 other United States cities to help reduce crime.
To support that, Congress has recently taken on three new DC Crime bills that take a tough on crime approach akin to that of the Democrat led crime bills of the 1990s. The DC Crimes Act of 2025 (HR 4922), The DC Juvenile Sentencing Reform Act and the DC Criminal Protection Act of 2025 all take on a Draconian approach to reducing crime. All three bills promote longer sentences as a way to curb crime.
Thomas Root, the founder of Lisa Legal references an OIG report from 2015 that highlights that longer sentences do nothing to deter crime, actually the opposite. And although it’s a little older (he has updated the article now including multiple current day references) it’s important to point out that the same OIG report holds true today.
The OIG, The Brennan Center, The Texas Criminal Justice Center, The Sentencing Project and others have all echoed the same data for over 10 years, and it’s not changing.
Check out this great story about DC’s tough on crime laws and the failure to address the real issues here at the lisalegal website.
Here’s a link to the 2015 OIG Report
Here’s a link to the Sentencing Project Report
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