U.S Presidential candidate Kamala Harris officially has a new plan to end mass incarceration. The plan, which relies heavily on her past as a prosecutor plays up much of the controversy surrounding her record.
The plan primarily tugs on embracing her past, however, uppercuts her past as an emboldened prosecutor who put people of coloraturas largely behind bars — the same people she hopes to secure votes from this election season.
Her plan mostly checks off many of the hot ticket issues on the progressive bail reform checklist:
Among the most important: legalizing marijuana and expunging past convictions; ending cash bail, mandatory sentencing minimums, and the death penalty; and banning private prisons.
Her plans also call for the creation of a police review board (on a national scale, I might add) that would keep record of all complaints and acts of police violence. Mimicking the National Transportation Safety Board it would then figure out how to address them further recreating “trust in law enforcement”.
One of the core issues that haven’t sat well with black Americans (in terms of her past) is the fact that as prosecutor Harris sought to put parents behind bars for student truancy. In San Francisco for example, it is believed that Harris helped along the issue by ordering truancy a top issue. Truancy in America has long been a hot-button issue and hits black families usually harder than others.
This article is part of our Kamala: An American Ambition series. Each week we will examine Harris ‘s policy proposals and ideas and discuss how they will change America (if she were to be elected).
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