In 2004, as District Attorney of San Francisco, Harris refused to seek the death penalty against a man convicted of shooting police officer Isaac Espinoza. She faced opposition from fellow Democrats, including Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) who called for the death penalty at the officer’s funeral. Following that incident, she received almost no support from police groups during her first run for attorney general in 2010.
Harris created the “Back on Track” program which allowed first-time drug offenders, including drug dealers, to get a high school diploma and a job instead of prison time. Adams, Harris’s spokesperson, noted that the program started in 2005, “when most prosecutors were using a ‘tough on crime’ approach.”
Harris promises to end the War on Drugs.
Harris would create grant programs to provide services to those most adversely impacted by the War on Drugs, provide states and localities with funds to make loans to assist small businesses in the marijuana industry, and provide funds for programs that minimize marijana licensing and employment barriers.
Harris is a cosponsor of the Justice Safety Valve Act, which would eliminate mandatory minimums by allowing judges to issue sentences below the mandatory minimum.
Harris would remove the clemency process from the Department of Justice due to inherent conflicts of interest.
Harris would create a new National Criminal Justice Commission to study state and federal criminal justice systems.
Harris would end the use of private prisons.
Harris would work to end juvenile incarceration, life sentences of children, the transfer of children to adult prisons, solitary confinement for children, and criminal charges for school-based disciplinary behavior.
Harris would mandate that federal prisons provide educational and vocational training, and mental health and addiction treatment.
Harris supports ban the box.
Harris introduced the Fair Chance at Housing Act of 2019 with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, which helps to remove barriers to obtaining federal housing assistance for individuals with criminal records.
Harris would create a National Police Systems Review Board.
Harris would double the size of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.
Harris would end the use of fines and fees that criminalize the poor, including ending suspension of driver’s licenses for unpaid fines.
Harris would increase prosecutorial accountability and would increase support for public defenders.
Harris pledges to end mass incarceration, and invest in community-based programs to reduce crime and promote safe and healthy communities.
Harris promises to make significant federal investments into evidence-based, non-carceral social supports and programs to improve public safety and reduce violence, including investing in jobs, job training, housing, transportation, food security, education, medical care and mental health care.
Harris will legalize marijuana on the federal level and expunge marijuana convictions.
Harris pledges to invest in reducing the incarceration of women convicted of non-violent offenses.
Harris would end mandatory minimums at the federal level.
Harris would form clemency/sentencing review units to significantly increase the use of clemency.
Harris would end the federal crack and powder cocaine sentencing disparity.
Harris pledges to reform community supervision by shortening the length of probation and ending jail time for technical violations of community-based supervision.
Harris would create a Bureau of Children and Family Justice.
Harris would invest in Back-on-Track programs.
Harris would mandate that federal prisons provide a reentry educational course.
Harris would end federal bans on formerly-incarcerated and arrested individuals access to public housing, student loans, SNAP and professional work licenses.
Harris supports automatic expungement and sealing of offenses that are not serious or violent after 5 years.
Harris supports independent investigations of officer-involved shootings.
Harris would end the death penalty and solitary confinement.
Harris would reinstate President Obama’s executive order to de-militarize police departments.
Harris would end money bail.
“I’ve been consistent my whole career. My career has been based on an understanding, one, that my duty as a prosecutor was to seek and make sure that the most vulnerable and voiceless among us are protected, and that is why I have personally prosecuted violent crime that includes rape, child molestation, and homicide. And, I have also worked my entire career to reform the criminal justice system, understanding, to your point, that it is deeply flawed and in need of repair, which is why, as attorney general for example, I led the Department of Justice, which is the largest state department of justice in any state, in California and implemented the first of its kind in the nation, implicit bias and procedural justice training for police officers. It is why I created the first in the nation for any department of justice an open data initiative that we named “Open Justice” for the first time making transparent and showing the public statistics around deaths in custody, arrest rates by race, and making that information available to the public. I instituted a policy around requiring the agents who worked in my division, which is the first of its kind for a state agency, to wear body cameras. I created an initiative back when I was DA, and this was when, by the way, this was the 90’s and the early 2000’s, where you could talk to DAs around the country and you’d mention the word re-entry, and they didn’t know what you were talking about. This was when there was a “tough-on-crime” mentality, and I created one of the first in the nation initiatives that was focused on re-entering former offenders by getting them jobs, and training, and counseling, and it ended up being something that, thankfully, in these ensuing 15 years, is something that is regularly talked about by district attorneys, but back when we created this, that was not happening. On the issue of the death penalty, I am personally opposed to the death penalty. I’ve always been opposed to the death penalty, and that’s not gonna change.”
Town Hall with Senator Kamala Harris
CNN, January 28, 2019
Read More
Kamala Harris Was Not a ‘Progressive Prosecutor’
The New York Times, January 17, 2019 | Lara Bazelon
Kamala’s Plan to Transform the Criminal Justice System and Re-Envision Public Safety in America
Candidate Website
Kamala Harris’s criminal justice reform plan, explained
Vox, September 9, 2019 | German Lopez
