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It did not take long after Vice President Kamala Harris replaced Joe Biden on the campaign trail for pundits to seize on an irresistible theme for the Harris/Trump matchup. âProsecutor versus felonâ was repeated ad nauseam on TV and online for days. âPeople are very excited to see her out there, and they love the narrative of the prosecutor against the felon,â a political strategist told CNN. The Rev. Al Sharpton gushed on MSNBC that if the election were a boxing match, it would be billed as the Prosecutor versus the Felon.
âConvicted felonâ was a favorite liberal insult against Donald Trump before Harrisâs ascension to the top of the presidential ticket. Trumpâs conviction on 34 criminal counts launched a thousand gleeful Facebook memes. Candidate Harris fulfilled a heady fantasy of a fight between an evildoer versus the one who could bring him to justice.
But formerly incarcerated activists pushed back, arguing that labels like âfelonâ are less harmful to Trump than they are to the millions of Americans with convictions on their record. Sheena Meade, CEO of the Clean Slate Initiative, wrote that such dehumanizing language bolsters the barriers preventing people from securing jobs, schooling, or housing after prison. âThese barriers are driven by harmful narratives about people with records that exclude us from our communities long after we have paid our debt to society,â she wrote. Through this lens, Harrisâs first official campaign ad â set to BeyoncĂ©âs âFreedomâ and appealing to Americansâ desire for bodily autonomy and the chance ânot just to get by but to get aheadâ â served as a reminder of the things that remain out of reach to people leaving prison.
Harris has not disavowed the prosecutor vs. felon theme. But she hasnât quite embraced it either. While her stump speech includes a crowd-pleasing riff about a career spent prosecuting predators, fraudsters, and cheats â âSo, hear me when I say: I know Donald Trumpâs typeâ â her tough-on-crime rhetoric is thus far focused on border enforcement, an area where she is seen as vulnerable (and where Democrats have never hesitated to move right).
If there are hints of how Harris might move on other criminal justice areas, her VP selection of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who signed sweeping reform legislation last year, suggests at the very least that sheâs not running away from the issue. More recently, news broke that New York City Council Member Yusef Salaam, one of the Exonerated Five, has been invited to speak at the Democratic National Convention â a nod toward the problem of wrongful convictions. (Trump notoriously called for the death penalty for Salaam and his co-defendants in the Central Park jogger case.)
But a few weeks into her presidential campaign and with the convention only days away, Harris has thus far remained silent on what, if any, role criminal justice reform would play in her presidency. (Her campaign did not respond to The Interceptâs questions.) This may simply reflect a strategic desire to avoid more over-the-top attacks from Republicans, who have already accused her of destroying San Francisco. Regardless, other policy areas have taken more of a priority, with Harris poised to unveil a new economic platform â her first substantive plan on any issue. In the meantime, a draft of the Democratic National Committeeâs party platform, released last month, echoes Bidenâs uninspired rhetoric â âWe need to fund the police, not defund the policeâ â while highlighting goals the White House laid out last year in a âmulti-year blueprint that applies a whole-of-government approach to improve the criminal justice system.â
That document broadly aligns with Bidenâs previously promised reforms as well as the priorities Harris laid out in her last presidential run. Her previous criminal justice platform called mass incarceration âthe civil rights issue of our timeâ and put forth a slew of reforms, from ending cash bail to legalizing marijuana â part of a vision to âincrease public safety, reduce our outsized criminal justice system, and make it fairer and more equitable for all.â
Such messaging proved unconvincing at the time. The âKamala is a copâ refrain ultimately eclipsed the progressive prosecutor image sheâd sought to portray. While the 2024 election is taking place in a starkly different political context â and amid considerable backlash to the limited reforms made in the wake of George Floydâs murder four years ago â Harris has an opportunity to refocus attention on the reforms she previously championed and to follow through on the many promises Biden failed to deliver. As she seeks to redefine herself in the run-up to the DNC, her statements â or silence â on criminal justice could speak volumes.
Photo: Bill Clark/ CQ Roll Call via AP
First Steps
In her 2019 memoir, âThe Truths We Hold,â Harris cast herself as a change agent from her earliest days as a prosecutor.
“` Others in California have been described as viewing her “as a prosecutor and attorney general who waited rather than led, who moved on controversial issues only once she saw what was politically viable.”
Similar criticism has been directed at her during her time as vice president. In a profile last year, New York Times political correspondent Astead Herndon pointed out that as “social movements have shifted the Democratsâ message on criminal justice and public safety leftward, the figure whose career seems to speak the most to that conversation has refused to lead it.”
To counter such portrayals, Harris’s record in the Senate is an area that could be highlighted. Throughout her time in Congress, she sponsored or co-sponsored several criminal justice reform bills. Despite the fact that none of them progressed, it indicates that Harris still has unfinished business in this area.
One significant moment was when Harris visited the Central California Womenâs Facility in Chowchilla, where incarcerated women shared their stories with her. This experience led to her introduction of the Pretrial Integrity and Safety Act, a bail reform bill she sponsored alongside Republican Senator Rand Paul. The bill aimed to address the issue of excessive bail that disproportionately affects low-income and minority communities.
Although the bill did not advance, Harris continued her efforts by introducing the Ensuring Quality Access to Legal Defense Act, which sought to support public defenders in their work. She also collaborated with other lawmakers on bills like the Fair Chance at Housing Act and the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, showing a commitment to criminal justice reform.
Overall, Harris’s legislative efforts may not have completely transformed the criminal justice system, but they have the potential to positively impact individuals affected by it. As Harris herself acknowledged when supporting the First Step Act, there is still much more work to be done in this area. The criminal justice system is in need of significant reforms, as current efforts fall short of addressing the existing issues. While there was hope that Vice President Harris would prioritize these issues, it seems that she has not taken the lead in this area. Despite hosting public roundtables on criminal justice themes and participating in events related to easing restrictions on marijuana and loans for those with criminal records, more decisive action is needed. Harris had previously promised to increase the use of clemency, which could have a significant impact on incarcerated individuals and their families.
In her role as vice president, Harris has the opportunity to make a difference in criminal justice reform. Despite her background in this area, she has not shown a strong commitment to addressing these issues. The Obama administration’s efforts to engage with formerly incarcerated activists are a positive step, but more decisive action is needed to bring about meaningful change. Harris will need to demonstrate how she plans to wield her power in the long term and address the core problems of the criminal justice system. As she has acknowledged, the challenges are not new, but how effectively they are addressed will determine the success of reform efforts. Please rewrite this sentence.
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