Flashback: Harris wanted to end cash bail and reduce penalties for criminals

A newly-resurfaced memo put out by Vice President Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign outlined her plan to “fundamentally transform” the criminal justice system by reducing penalties for criminals.

Harris, in 2019, promised to end cash bail, get rid of court-ordered fines, expunge the records of some felons, discontinue federal mandatory minimum sentences, and place greater federal scrutiny on local police departments, according to a memo resurfaced by the Washington Free Beacon on Thursday. While Harris has previously supported weakening law enforcement, her campaign is preparing to present her to voters as a law and order candidate in contrast to former President Donald Trump, CNN reported.

“It is long past time to re-envision public safety by strengthening and supporting our communities and drastically limiting the number of people we expose to our criminal justice system,” the memo reads. “As president, Kamala will fundamentally transform how we approach public safety.”

Nearly 60% of Americans surveyed in January, including roughly half of Democrats, said that the president and Congress should make addressing crime a priority, according to the Pew Research Center. A similar proportion of registered voters, 61%, told Pew in April that the criminal justice system is not tough enough on criminals.

“Excessive cash bail disproportionately harms people from low-income communities and communities of color,” Harris’ 2019 memo reads. She characterized cash bail systems as “criminalizing poverty” and vowed to end them.

Ending cash bail has led to a backlash in some major cities, with New Yorkers in February 2022 overwhelmingly supporting tightening bail laws following an increase in crime, the New York Post reported. The Texas Organizing Project, a Soros-backed nonprofit that opposes cash bail, bonded out a man who went on to allegedly murder six people and shoot three others in December 2023.

“In addition, we need to eliminate court fees and fees associated with diversion, treatment, or community supervision that make it harder for individuals to reintegrate into society,” Harris’ memo continued.

The memo no longer appears on Harris’ campaign website, though it is still present on the vice president’s Medium page.

Harris also promised to automatically remove “offenses that are not serious or violent” from criminals’ records after five years, according to the memo. The memo does not define what a “serious” offense is.

She also supported restoring voting rights to all those who have served criminal records, per the memo, and advocated for more federal oversight of local police departments, citing alleged “racial profiling” and “excessive force.”

The now-Vice President proposed a “National Police Systems Review Board” that “would collect data and review police shootings and other cases of severe misconduct,” according to the memo. She also promised to provide the Department of Justice with resources to provide grants to fund greater scrutiny of officers who shoot suspects and pledged to reinstate an executive order restricting the sale of certain military equipment to police departments.

Harris’ support for weakening law enforcement extends beyond one campaign memo.

In 2020, she praised the defund the police movement during a radio interview for “rightly” calling out the amount of money spent on police departments, CNN reported. Harris also lauded Los Angeles for cutting its police department’s budget by $150 million, according to the NYP.

The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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