Kamala Harris, The Prosecutor

Kamala Harris: The Prosecutor

By Megan Wallin

An American Dream

She carries herself like a leader. She doesn’t isolate listeners with simplistic statements when she speaks. Her  back story is proof of the American dream. An ethusiastic 20,000 supporters came out in Oakland, Ca to hear her announce her intention to make a run for the presidency. That, and according to Lisa Lerer of The New York Times, Harris “matched Senator Bernie Sanders’s record by raising $1.5 million from 38,000 donors in the first 24 hours of her campaign”. All in all an impressive campaign roll out.  Kamala Harris’ decision to run for president is an obvious threat to other Democratic candidates.

Prepared to Change the Status Quo

As a prosecutor Harris went to crime scene

As a prosecutor Harris went to crime scenes

In an interview with Mother Jones writer Jamilah King, Kamala Harris gives more of her story, her views, and how her education and work has prepared her to change the status quo. She tells King, “This is about my training as a prosecutor. I like to go to the scene, and I do that with almost [any] project. I need to see it and I need to hear it—I need to feel it, almost, so that I can have some intuitive sense, as well as some theoretical or intellectual or academic sense, of what’s going on.”

Something Meaningful

At first glance, Kamala Harris’ background as a prosecutor doesn’t seem like the type of preparation that would lead to being not just a senator, but a social leader, maker of history, and presidential candidate. But Harris grew up watching her parents forge ahead into unknown territory, and—by her own admission—her yearning for something meaningful started at a young age.

Education and Activism

Harris’s mother Gopalan immigrated from Chennai, India, to study at the University of  California-Berkeley for her doctorate in nutrition and endocrinology. She met and fell in love with Donald Harris, a Jamaican-born economics major earning his Ph.D. Rather than returning home to marry someone of her family’s choosing, Gopalan stayed in the United States. Together Harris and Gopalan had two daughters. They raised their daughters nurtured within two combined cultures and instilled them with a respect for activism and academia.

Early passion

Prison reform is part of Harris' plan

Prison reform is part of Harris’ plan

Prison reform is one of the earliest passions that Kamala Harris took from intention to action—a movement that has prompted both praise and disdain. The very epitome of the “change from the inside” type of politician, she visited prisons and made observations not only of the facts (incarceration rates, recidivism, ages of first offense) but also took note of the real people, the prisoners, and their attitudes toward both their pasts and their futures.

Smart on Crime

“Many of the perpetrators are repeat offenders who commit a crime days after being released from jail or prison for the previous crime”, Harris wrote in her book Smart on Crime. These re-offenders were usually drug offenses, and the process of arrest, conviction and jail was one that wasted time and money. “Each one involves an arrest, a booking, a prosecutor’s time, a judge’s time, often a public defender’s time, a stay in jail of short or long duration, and a probation officer’s time, for which taxpayers foot the bill.” She also noted the social and emotional consequences. “These crimes carry all sorts of collateral and psychological costs as well—the social damage of a neighborhood from drug dealing or the cost of putting an offender’s children in foster care.”

High Standards

Program to limit recidivism me with positive and negative results

Harris supported Back On Track. A plan to prevent recidivism among first-time offenders

Francie Diep of Pacific Standard described Harris’ prison reform program, Back on Track, as largely a success. The goal was to prevent recidivism among first-time, non-violent drug offenders from ages 18 to 30. The program enforced such preventive measures as job training and courses as a community college, as well as community services. With strict rules and heavy charges for those missing appointments. Participants were held to high yet reasonable standards. The percentage of re-offenders went from over 50% in the general population to 10% for those who had graduated from the Back on Track program.

Not Perfect

One hiccup occurred when a 2009 Los Angeles Times article pointed out that several undocumented participants in the Back on Track were not able to hold the jobs for which they had been trained, but Kamala Harris refuted the claims, stating that the issue had been resolved by her office. More concerning should be her support of California’s harsh “3 strikes law“.  On that topic she has drawn intense criticism for her lack of action as AG of California in the Daniel Larsen case. Larsen was convicted under the 3 strikes law by the false testimony of two police officers. The Sacramento Bee said Harris was “too cautious and often calculating politician”.

Beholden to a System

There is a certain dichotomy at work in Harris. Somewhere between her social activism and reputation as a tough yet fair prosecutor, she has managed to flip on a few issues and be seen at times as beholden to the very system she asserts needs to change. Jamilah King of Mother Jones pointed out a couple such instances. Be it Kamala Harris’ flip on the death penalty (against it, but later defending California’s right to apply it) to her confusing failure to prosecute One West Bank for foreclosure violations while suing Wells Fargo (among others) for similar offenses.

Her Past

Kamala Harris’ civil rights record is also somewhat at odds. According to King, who cites the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, “In 2014, she co-sponsored a bill to outlaw the so-called gay-panic defense in California, a legal strategy that often shielded perpetrators of violent crimes against LGBT people from serious punishment, but a year later she sought to block gender reassignment surgery for a transgender prison inmate.” A split picture to many observers.

Under the Microscope

Perhaps part of what makes Kamala Harris an appealing candidate, is that she seems to have the ability to treat each matter as a distinct and separate issue, each worthy of examination. This could explain why she appears supportive in one instance and not in another. Perhaps she is trying to show that she is not held to her own bias by making concessions. But whatever the reason, these types of mixed-bag decisions may cost her as she steps on to the  national political stage. The American people will now turn the focus to Harris. It is now time to watch her every word and action.

Decisions She Made

Not that we weren’t already, but there remained some compartmentalized view of what her decisions meant, and what impact they should have. Now, every detail is on display. From her education at Howard University to her decisions as both a prosecutor and senator, Harris will face a cross-examination of sorts in a national process that has managed to make mountains out of mole hills while excusing real threats.

Debates

The American people have watched as our process of debates somehow make people dismiss blatant failures (e.g. Bush’s inability to explain military decisions, Trump’s incessant lying and bankruptcies and sexual harassment history) and instead focus on details that undermine a candidate yet bring a post-election shrug (e.g. Clinton’s emails). The psychology of election behavior is a science unto itself.

She Makes People Pay Attention

There’s something about Kamala Harris that, as several publications have noted now, makes those in the room stop and pay attention. She is strikingly beautiful. Her smile lights up a space. Her speeches echo the articulate beauty of Michelle Obama.  Now is her time to take full advantage of those qualities. Her biggest task will be to convince the left-wing of the Democratic Party that her “prosecutor” mind-set has morphed into Sister Theresa. We will soon see.

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