Kamala Harris has a smart approach to crime

By Barbara McQuade

Vice President Kamala Harris has been using her record as a prosecutor to draw a contrast with her rival for the presidency, convicted felon Donald Trump. Perhaps seeking to neutralize that line of attack, former President Trump and his running mate, Ohio Senator J D Vance, have been portraying Harris as “weak on crime.”

Maybe they assume Harris will hesitate to push back on this attack. After all, in 2020, following the murder of George Floyd and demands to defund the police, Harris distanced herself from characterizations of her as a “top cop.” But Harris has spent the bulk of her career as a thoughtful leader in the criminal justice system, gaining insights she should tout in her campaign for president. Based on her record, Harris defies the conventional labels of “tough” or “soft” on crime — instead pioneering a nuanced approach that influenced the federal government during the Obama administration.

Harris spent most of her career in law enforcement, first as a trial prosecutor, and then as an elected district attorney. She later served as attorney general of California. In those roles, she made a name for herself by working strategically to reduce crime and promote fairness in the criminal justice system. As Bloomberg Opinion columnist Erika D Smith noted, in Harris’ first four years as attorney general, California’s violent crime rate dropped 10 per cent.

Her experiences as a prosecutor led to her 2009 book, Smart on Crime. In it, she called the debate between tough and soft on crime “a false choice,” and instead argued for evidence-based strategies to reduce crime — strategies that address both the enforcement and prevention sides of the equation. “Serious and violent criminals need to be locked up,” she wrote. “But to rock the crime pyramid, we can’t stop there.” The focus instead, she wrote, should be on effectiveness, which requires “punishment, opportunities for redemption, education, and support for victims.”

For example, as a district attorney in the aughts, Harris developed a program called “Back on Track,” which gave second chances to low-level offenders who agreed to plead guilty, work in a job-training program and participate in regular court check-ins to ensure accountability. If they succeeded for 12 months, their cases were dismissed. Offenders who failed to complete the program were sentenced and punished for their crimes.

According to Harris’s book, the recidivism rate for participants who completed the program was just 10 per cent, in contrast to 50 per cent for other offenders in her district. She noted the benefits in terms of improving public safety, breaking the cycle of crime for offenders and reducing costs, which, at the time was $43,000 per inmate per year at the county jail. Harris launched other innovative programs to reduce both crime and prison terms, such as specialty courts, a gang intervention initiative and prisoner re-entry programs.

Harris’ ideas were influential beyond the Bay Area. In 2013, while I was serving as a US attorney in Michigan, the US Department of Justice adopted many of the ideas Harris described in her book, even using the name 'Smart on Crime'. The strategy was based on Harris’ holistic view that crime can be reduced through enforcement and prevention. Like Harris, the Justice Department used evidence-based practices, such as collaborating with state and local law enforcement to leverage resources, using data to identify crime hotspots for increased patrols, experimenting with alternatives to incarceration for low-level offenders, and filing charges that carried mandatory minimum sentences judiciously to prioritize the most dangerous drug dealers and violent criminals. In its three years, the Smart on Crime program yielded a 13 per cent decrease in the federal prison population.

Another example comes from Detroit, where one of the Smart on Crime initiatives was a gang intervention program called Ceasefire. Law enforcement and community partners hosted call-ins, which offenders were required to attend as a condition of parole or probation. During these meetings, offenders were nudged with carrots and sticks to shape up. Among the carrots: Participants were offered job training and drug treatment opportunities. As for the sticks, offenders were also shown their criminal records and informed of the penalties for continued armed criminal conduct. Those who went on to commit violent gun crimes were prioritized for swift prosecution. Neighborhoods that participated in the program saw a marked decrease in gang violence.

The Trump administration disbanded the Smart on Crime strategy, but many of its elements have been restored by the Biden-Harris team. And while it can be difficult to identify the cause of reductions in crime rates, violent crime has been trending steadily downward in recent years, despite some perceptions to the contrary.

Some politicians will beat their chests and demand law and order without regard to the allocation of resources or the consequences to society. But mindless calls to be tough on crime will not solve the complex problems of our criminal justice system. Instead, we need a leader who will be creative, innovative and strategic — in a word, smart.