The race to the White House is firing up after Vice President Kamala Harris announced her bid for the 2024 election following President Joe Biden bowing out of the race this weekend. As Harris ramps up her campaign, one of her biggest challenges within the Black community is a critique that’s been nagging her since Biden announced her as his vice president: Her tenure as California’s attorney general.
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Specifically, many Black folks have taken Harris to task for the perception that she was “hard on crime” and thus contributed to the mass incarceration of Black people. Truth is, she was not as tough on crime as people were led to believe. In fact, she interprets her own tenure as that of a progressive prosecutor — but it’s all a bit complicated. Let’s take a look.
While serving as San Francisco’s district attorney, Harris launched a reentry initiative called “Back on Track” to reduce recidivism among non-violent, low-level drug-trafficking defendants. This initiative assisted in providing job assistance and other skills to help former offenders reestablish themselves in society, according to the Bureau of Justice Assistance.
After students finished the program, their felony charges were expunged; less than 10 percent of graduates reoffended, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Harris was accused of imprisoning an estimated 1,500 people as attorney general of California for marijuana offenses, earning her the title “Kamala the Cop”. She did oversee around 1,956 felony convictions, but most of them did not serve jail time.
Also, the Biden Administration has pardoned thousands of people for federal marijuana convictions and Harris stated that “no one should have to go to jail for smoking weed”.
Harris has proven that she’s interested in providing other alternatives for non-violent, low-level convicted felons. During the time she served as district attorney, this was a big deal.
In fact, while Harris served as attorney general, the figures dropped dramatically from 817 marijuana-related admissions from her first year in office to 137, according to California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The Biden Administration has failed to enact the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, however, Harris co-introduced legislation that could reform policing on the federal level.
Harris’ prosecutorial history is indeed complicated, but it’s unfair to automatically write her off as being hard on crime when, in reality, the facts tell a different story.
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Alyse Martin is a writer based in Atlanta with an interest in political and entertainment journalism.
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