Harris has a plan for that, as well (criminal justice reform).
Senator’s 15-page plan includes executive actions and legislation
Kamala Harris on Monday laid out a sweeping agenda to reform the criminal justice system and reduce mass incarceration, in a sign that the California senator isn’t shying away from her record as a former prosecutor.
As president, Harris said, she would move to end the death penalty for federal crimes, get rid of the cash bail system, remove mandatory minimum sentences, close private prisons and help former inmates reintegrate into their communities.
Harris has already discussed most of the proposals in the plan. But consolidating them into one progressive laundry list is a rejoinder to critics on the left who have attacked her history as San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general.
Harris also weathered broadsides during the most recent presidential debate from former Vice President Joe Biden and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard over her prosecutorial record on issues like marijuana and death row appeals. Harris will be back in the spotlight at the next debate, scheduled for Thursday, and could face additional questions about her record.
Harris has argued that her experience working in the criminal justice system makes her the perfect person to retool it — and her 15-page plan includes a bevy of executive actions, legislation, and efforts to pressure state and local governments to rethink the way they arrest and prosecute offenders.
The top proposal would be “ending the war on drugs” and decrim
inalizing marijuana at the federal level. Her plan would reform the presidential clemency power, creating a more streamlined review unit to help inmates who’ve been in federal prison for decades get out sooner.
She also would work to “end juvenile incarceration
in favor of restorative justice programs and wrap-around services,” except for the most serious crimes, the plan says.
Inmates getting out of prison would have a helping hand under Harris’ plan, which would automatically expunge nonviolent arrests after five years, restore voting rights for people who’ve served their sentence, and provide more education and job training behind bars. But many of those reforms would
have to take place at the state level, and Harris doesn’t say how she’d get states to change their laws to convert the plan to reality.
Other proposals take a page from California. Harris calls for a national police standard that would allow officers to use deadly force only when “necessary” — similar to a new Golden State law approved last month — which would presumably make it easier to charge officers involved
in shootings.
Her plan also calls for reducing female incarceration, but it doesn’t provide specific details on how she’d achieve that. And she’d require police to collect more data on racial disparities in law enforcement and use of force.
On some of the issues, Harris the presidential hopeful is far away from Harris the district attorney or attorney general. She now calls for independent investigations
of police shootings, while she opposed legislation in California that would have mandated the attorney general’s office carry them out. And while she now puts decriminalizing marijuana at the center of her plan to reduce mass incarceration, she opposed legalizing pot for much of her political career, coming around on the issue only after she was elected to the U.S. Senate.
Most of her White House rivals are in broad agreement with Harris on criminal justice reforms, but the issue has been a lightning rod in the race so far, with both Harris and Biden facing criticism for their past stances. Notably, Harris’ plan would end the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine set in a decades-old criminal justice bill Biden help pass — and a policy he’s apologized for in the past.