Harris faces calls to address mass incarceration, drop prosecutor vs. criminal line

More than 160 leaders directly impacted by incarceration and criminalization have sent a letter to Vice President Harris calling on her to create a campaign platform that addresses mass incarceration.

The Hill received an exclusive look at the letter to the likely Democratic nominee, which calls on Harris to reject harmful language around the criminal justice system, including the narrative that this year’s match-up between her and former President Trump is between “a “tough-on-crime” prosecutor and a “criminal.”’

Such language, the leaders state, is harmful to both Harris’s campaign and those impacted by the criminal justice system.

“First, we believe you have been and will be a criminal justice reform leader. And, also, words like 'criminal' and 'felon' paint with a broad brush that stains more than 70 million Americans with criminal records including the 1 in 3 Black men who have felony convictions,” the letter reads.

Signatories of the letter include Norris Henderson, co-founder and steering committee member of the Formerly Incarcerated Convicted People and Families Movement; DeAnna Hoskins, president and CEO of JustLeadershipUSA, an organization dedicated to criminal justice reform; and members of the National Council for Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls.

Though the total number of people incarcerated has dropped significantly since the 2008 peak of almost 2.4 million people, according to FWD, a bipartisan political organization focused on reforming the criminal justice and immigration systems. Mass incarceration and the subsequent consequences disproportionately affect Black and brown Americans. 

The national incarceration rate of Black Americans is six times the rate of white people, according to the Prison Policy Initiative.

Before joining the Senate, Harris was an attorney general and a prosecutor. She has leaned into this history since announcing her bid for the presidency last week. 

“Before I was elected as vice president, before I was elected as United States senator, I was the elected attorney general, as I've mentioned, of California. And before that, I was a courtroom prosecutor,” Harris at a campaign event in Wilmington, Del., the day after President Biden announced he was dropping out and endorsed her. 

“In those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds — predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So, hear me when I say: I know Donald Trump's type."

But the letter argues Harris can hold Trump accountable for his conduct and the impact of his actions and policy proposals without the “outdated fear-mongering” rhetoric that “dehumanizes us and opens the door to the ridicule and slander that has long plagued us since the Black Codes.”

“Shouting 'felon!' without acknowledging the injustices taking place daily in courts, prisons, and jails depresses the tremendous electoral potential of engaging with the tens of millions of us who have criminal convictions and the even greater number of American voters who love us,” the letter states. 

The letter's signatories acknowledge that in 2019, Harris was the first candidate to agree to attend the criminal justice reform presidential town hall held inside a shuttered prison. 

“You spoke directly to the millions of us on both sides of the prison walls who have been personally impacted by mass incarceration about your plans to prioritize safety and justice for our families,” the letter states. 

Leaders added that they hope Harris will create a criminal justice reform platform, as there is “nothing less than freedom on the line.”