Yes.

Good afternoon, everyone.

I would like to call this meeting of the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety to order.

I'm Councilmember Brooke Pinto, Chairwoman of the Committee, and the Councilmember for Ward 2.

Today is Thursday, March 26th, and the time is 150 p.m.

We're conducting the hearing virtually via Zoom and streaming on the DC Council's website and YouTube and access at CM Brook Pinto.

We have a quorum today with at large councilmember Anita Bonds and Ward 7 Councilmember Wendell Felder.

We've also been joined by our Ward 5 colleague, uh Councilmember Zachary Parker.

We have three items on the agenda today.

The proposed resolution 26-491, Corrections Information Council Governing Board, Natasha Dasher Confirmation Resolution of 2026, proposed resolution 26-492, the Corrections Information Council Governing Board, Dr.

Praschelle Shannon Confirmation Resolution of 2026, and Bill 26-033, excuse me, Bill 26-0399, the Support Opportunity Unity Legal Relationships, or SOL Amendment Act of 2026.

We're going to move the CIC Council Governing Board Ninees and Blood.

We have PR26-491, the Corrections Information Council Governing Board, Natasha Dasher, confirmation resolution of 2026, and PR 26-492, the Corrections Information Council Governing Board, Dr.

Praschelle Shannon confirmation resolution of 2026.

These two resolutions will confirm Priselle Shannon and Natasha Dasher to serve as members of the Corrections Information Council Governing Board.

Resolutions were introduced by Chairman Mendelson at the request of the mayor on December 26th, December 16th, 2025.

Both Mrs.

Ms.

Dasher and Dr.

Shannon are current board members and are being renominated.

The District of Columbia Corrections Information Council was created by Congress in 1997 for the purpose of investigating and conducting inspections of the district's correctional facilities.

CIC governing board's role is to provide advice and information to the director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the Director of the District Department of Corrections regarding matters affecting the district's incarcerated individuals.

The board is also tasked with reviewing the findings of the executive director and the CIC and making recommendations regarding the conditions of confinement in the district of District of Columbia residents in BOP or DOC custody.

The board consists of five members, three appointed by the mayor, and two by the council.

The mayor designates the chairperson of the board and members of the board serve for terms of two years.

Natasha Dasher is the current administrative officer for the Federal Energy Management Program at the U.S.

Department of Energy.

As a returning citizen herself, Ms.

Dasher brings to the CIC personal experience and understanding of processes and institutional knowledge.

Ms.

Dasher has also served as a commissioner of the Commission on Reentry and Returning Citizens' Affairs from 2021 to 2023 and chair of the commission from 2023 to 2024.

As a commissioner, Ms.

Dasher worked in collaboration with stakeholders, the mayor, and the council, and the incarcerated.

Prischelle Shannon is the current CEO and co-founder of 4 Truth, a registered for-profit, which provides trauma-informed consulting to private nonprofit and government entities.

4 Truth has provided services to the Department of Youth Rehabilitative Services during the 2021 and 2022 fiscal years.

Dr.

Shannon has over 16 years of experience working with incarcerated citizens in jails, prisons, re-entry, and therapeutic residential treatment communities.

She has served the population in many roles, most notably as a uniformed officer, substance abuse counselor, mental health therapist, management and program analyst, PRIA coordinator, community corrections, senior institutional administrator, and former DOJA certified pre-auditor.

Without objection, we will move these two nominees for the CIC governing committee in block.

Okay.

With that, I will move the prints and reports of PR 26-491 and PR26-492 with leave for staff to make technical editorial and conforming changes.

All right.

Hearing none, all in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Great.

The ayes have it unanimously.

The motions are approved.

Last, we will discuss Bill 26-0399, the support opportunity unity legal relationships, or soul amendment act of 2026.

This bill was introduced by Zachary Councilmember Zachary Parker and co-introduced by Council Members Robert White, Lewis George, Alan, and myself.

And in addition, it's been co-sponsored by Councilmembers Nadeau and Treanne White.

The bill was recently referred to the Committee on Youth Affairs and the Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety.

We held a joint hearing on November 13th, 2025.

The Committee on Youth Affairs marked up their version of the print on January 27, 2026.

I'm thrilled to present the print for soul for markup today.

The bill aims to create a new legal permanency option known as a soul family for children involved with the Child and Family Services Agency, CFSA.

This new permanency option enables youth to acquire a stable network of supportive adults able to provide housing care and mentorship.

Back in 2023, Councilmember Nadeau and I worked to pass the Vulnerable Youth Guardianship Amendment Act, which established a special kind of guardian to ensure the legal rights care and support for non-citizen youth between the ages of 18 and 21.

As we recognize that the existing system had gaps for this particular group.

Seoul promises a much more encompassing change to support young people under and coming out of the foster care system.

The main purpose of this bill is to expand permanency options for older youth who may not want adoption but still need legal and emotional support.

Does this by defining a sole family, including roles of caregivers and supporters, establishing family court procedures for selecting and formalizing support family permanency plans, setting forth rights, responsibilities, and adjudicative adjudicatory hearing standards for the establishment of sole family, granting the family court authority to issue support family orders and mandates confidentiality and authorizing child and family services, CFSA to provide subsidies to sole caregivers.

We thought it especially important to preserve the identical legal substance of print from the Committee on Youth Affairs, given the careful crafting and stakeholder engagement that it took to arrive at this novel youth-led legislation as informed by experts with lived experience, even while we technically clarified some changes in the print.

A similar sole proposal has been enacted in Kansas, and I'm so excited for the district to be the second place to pioneer this important proposal.

Our work on this print has been closely informed by the Committee on Youth Affairs, the Office of the Attorney General, the Children's Law Center, the DC Family and Youth Initiative, and youth with lived experience in the district's foster care system, known as Lived Experts or Lived Experience LEX.

Or Lex.

I am grateful for all of you and all of your work with our team.

I especially want to uplift and recognize the lived experience and lex leaders, some of whom I understand are watching this markup today.

So welcome to you all and thank you for really your years of work and the ongoing work that has brought this important legislation before us to this point.

I hope you are very proud of all your accomplishments, and we are very proud to work with you all on this bill.

Um congratulations to Councilmember Parker for leading this effort.

I want to open up uh if members have uh comments or discussion.

Councilmember Parker.

Thank you, Councilmember Pinto.

And it is great to be with members of the uh JPS committee again.

Um, I wanted to also uh just lift up the work of those Lex leaders, our young people who have lived experience within our child and family services agency.

Uh, this is all of their work.

They're Brain Chow for many years, they informed uh what it is that they need in order to thrive, and just to level set for people that may be watching.

Um we know that there is a challenge for some of our older youth within our child welfare system to find permanency options.

Oftentimes we think about adoption, uh, but quite frankly, adoption isn't the right fit for all of our young people.

And what we have routinely heard from them is that they are constantly seeking other options.

What this legislation does, again, that they inform that they wrote that they continue to have input on, uh, and councilmember Pinto can attest.

They have uh great insights and they are paying attention to this as is moving along through the council's process, is that it allows for the courts to create a legal structure to empower a cohort of adults to support uh older uh young person, maybe 14, 15, 16 years of age as they're aging out of the child welfare system uh into adulthood.

That might look like a next-door neighbor, a basketball coach.

Uh, it may uh be a friend of the family.

It may be a relative.

And what we know currently is that many of those individuals that are already informally providing support to these young people don't have the legal protections or the legal sanctions uh that is afforded uh to an adopted family.

And so this expands permanency options, it expands supports, it expands um protections for the young people.

Two things I would just say, and I'll stop talking.

I want to give a shout out to JPS and Councilmember Pinto's team who worked closely with us that this is uh youth focused, that we are empowering young people to make judgments about the individuals and the adults that are part of these soul networks.

That is from direct feedback that we heard from the young people.

Uh as well as we are allowing them to be in the driver's seat uh to determine the the the court proceedings and how those things may proceed.

On the youth affairs side, we changed the name of the sole family structure, and we heard a lot of feedback from them that they wanted it to be named soul, and so we changed it back.

So out in there, but all in all, this will ensure that we are increasing the likelihood of young people in our child and welfare system uh to be able to age out of the system and be successful and to thrive.

Um and for that, we all should be proud.

So shout out to our lex leaders and everybody involved in uh crafting this legislation.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Councilmember Parker.

Councilmember Bonds.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, um, Chairwoman.

And thanks to um colleague uh Parker for this, I consider very meaningful legislation.

One of the things that has happened over the years is young people who are not quite sure that they're ready to age out of the system because of their age, they do in fact leave the system.

And then there's a dilemma.

And they do not feel very comfortable knowing where to go and how to navigate um this um interesting world that we have created for them.

And I think this bill is um really dynamite for those um young folk.

Um while it's you focus, as has been said by um councilmember Parker, and also the operations are new focused.

It also provides the opportunity to officially recognize that young people can and do have opportunities to call on elements within the community.

So I I really applaud this legislation and look forward to seeing it implemented and helping our young younger adults uh navigate um uh the systems that we have put before them and giving them greater opportunities uh than before because now they know officially they can call on us, and society says we must respond.

So thank you.

Thank you very much for for this legislation, and I'm prepared to, of course, support it.

Thank you so much, Councilmember Bonds.

Is there any other discussion?

Okay.

With that, I now move the print and report of B26-399 with leave for staff to make any other technical auditorial and conforming changes.

All in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

I council Parker, you're on mute.

Oh, you can't vote.

I can't vote, but if I could vote, I would be an enthusiastic eye.

Thank you.

Um okay, great.

With that, the motion is approved unanimously, and that concludes our markup for this afternoon.

There being no further committee, the no further business before the committee, the time is now 2 or 3 p.m.

and we are adjourned.

Thank you all.

All right, thank you.

Bye.