Kamala Harris’s Signature Achievement Was a Complete Failure
Kamala Harris trumpets a criminal justice program she instituted as district attorney as proof she's a "progressive prosecutor." The only problem? The program utterly failed to reduce mass incarceration in California.
Kamala Harris speaks at the 2019 California Democratic Party State Convention at the George R. Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, California. (Gage Skidmore / Flickr)
It’s been called Kamala Harris’s “most successful program.” Framed as a visionary break from an era of “tough on crime” policing, “Back on Track” (BOT) has been replicated in cities around the country and was even adopted as a model program by the National District Attorneys Association. Harris herself has cited it as an inspiration for her 2010 book, Smart on Crime.
But given the realities of the program, the praise is largely unwarranted.
Pioneered in 2005 when Harris was San Francisco’s district attorney, BOT was a pretrial diversion program targeting young adults ages eighteen to thirty who had no history with guns, gangs, violence, or drugs around schools and who were facing their first felony charge for either selling or possessing less than five grams of a controlled substance (including marijuana). All drug sales were felonies in California at the time.
This article is for subscribers only. Please login or subscribe to access our full archives and beautiful print and digital magazine starting at just $3 a month.