The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

Harris recalls her time as an intern at the Alameda County Superior Courthouse in Oakland, California, in 1988, including a case involving a woman who was wrongfully arrested during a drug raid and faced the prospect of spending a weekend in jail. Recognizing the potentially devastating consequences for the woman and her children, Harris called the case urgently before a judge, resulting in the woman’s swift release. This experience solidified Harris’s belief that the justice system needs compassionate prosecutors.

Harris details her parents’ immigration stories: Her father, Donald Harris, came from Jamaica to study economics at the University of California, Berkeley, and her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, came from India to pursue a doctorate in nutrition and endocrinology and become a breast cancer researcher. Harris emphasizes the importance of her mother’s influence, portraying her as a strong, independent woman who instilled values of hard work, education, and social justice in her children.

The chapter explores Harris’s childhood, highlighting the diverse and politically active community of Berkeley and Oakland. She describes attending civil rights protests with her parents and being exposed to influential figures in the Black community. She emphasizes the impact of the Rainbow Sign—a Black cultural center—on her development, where she encountered prominent Black thinkers, artists, and leaders.

Harris recounts her family’s move to Montreal when she was 12, detailing the challenges of adapting to a new environment and learning French. While there, she maintained her connection to her roots and her desire to return to the United States for college.

The narrative then shifts to Harris’s college years at Howard University, a transformative experience. The diverse and intellectually stimulating environment fostered her sense of identity and ambition, and Harris details her involvement in various activities, including student government and her sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha.

Following her time at Howard, Harris decided to pursue law school at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. She chose to become a prosecutor as a way to effect change from within the system. Harris acknowledges the skepticism she faced from friends and family about her career path, given the historical misuse of prosecutorial power against people of color. She was deeply familiar with this “deep and dark history” (25), but she was inspired by the legacy of courageous prosecutors who fought for civil rights and justice to help positively change the country’s uneven legal system.

The chapter then delves into Harris’s early prosecutorial career, first as an intern and then a deputy district attorney. She describes challenges she faced, including failing the bar exam on her first attempt, and how she overcame them. Several cases significantly impacted, particularly those involving child abuse and sexual exploitation. She describes the challenges of prosecuting such cases, including the emotional toll on survivors and the difficulties in obtaining testimony from traumatized children. Harris details a case involving a six-year-old girl who was molested, and the frustration and heartbreak she felt when unable to secure enough evidence for a conviction. She also discusses her work with sexually exploited youth, highlighting the systemic failures that often led to their victimization. These experiences profoundly shaped her understanding of the criminal justice system’s complexities, revealing the limitations of prosecutorial power to address deeply rooted social issues. These cases reinforced her belief in the importance of addressing systemic problems and developing more comprehensive approaches to justice and survivor support.

The chapter concludes with Harris’s transition to the San Francisco District Attorney’s office, a dysfunctional and demoralized environment. Frustrated by the office’s ineffectiveness, she subsequently moved to the City Attorney’s office. In this role, Harris focused on developing policies to address issues affecting sexually exploited youth. She co-founded a task force comprised of experts, survivors, and advocates that led to the establishment of a safe house for exploited youth and increased law enforcement attention on illegal brothels. This policy work proved rewarding and demonstrated to Harris that she could effect significant change through public service. The success of these initiatives, coupled with her growing concern about the continued dysfunction in the District Attorney’s office, led Harris to consider running for elected office. She began to see the position of District Attorney as a means to implement broader reforms in the criminal justice system. Despite the challenges of campaigning against an established incumbent, Harris felt compelled to pursue this path to create more comprehensive and lasting change.

Harris describes the early days of her campaign for San Francisco District Attorney. She set up an ironing board as an improvised table outside a supermarket to display campaign literature and engage with potential voters. She loved engaging directly with constituents, even if it meant appearing unconventional to passersby. A poll revealed that only 6% of people in San Francisco County had heard of Harris, so she knew she had to work hard to introduce herself and her platform to voters.

Harris won the runoff election and was inaugurated as District Attorney in 2004. She describes herself as a “progressive prosecutor,” aiming to balance accountability for serious crimes with addressing systemic issues in the justice system. She highlights the issue of unsolved homicides, which particularly affected Black and Latino communities in San Francisco, and how she pushed the San Francisco Police Department’s homicide inspectors to work their case backlog, leading to unsolved homicides being reduced by 25%.

During Harris’s early career as a prosecutor, she observes the flaws in the criminal justice system, particularly with regard to drug offenses and mass incarceration. At the Alameda County DA’s office, she saw firsthand the impact of the war on drugs on communities of color.

As DA, Harris introduced the Back on Track program to reduce recidivism by providing job training, education, and support services to nonviolent first-time offenders. She faced challenges in implementing progressive reforms and received criticism for focusing on reentry programs for people who claimed she was wasting resources; nevertheless, she persisted in her efforts. The Back on Track program had strict requirements: Participants had to plead guilty; complete job training, GED courses, community service, and parenting and financial literacy classes; and undergo drug testing and therapy. The program’s success was evident in its recidivism rates, with only 10% of Back on Track graduates reoffending within two years, compared to 50% for those convicted of similar crimes who did not participate in the program.

Harris then outlines her efforts, both as DA and later as a US Senator, to address broader issues in the criminal justice system, such as cash bail, racial disparities in arrests and sentencing, and the need for marijuana legalization. She details the inequities of the cash bail system, noting that median bail in the United States is $10,000, while the median savings account balance for households with an income of $45,000 is only $2,530 (64). She also highlights the racial disparities in marijuana arrests—between 2001 and 2010, over 7 million people were arrested for simple possession of marijuana, with a disproportionate number being people of color. As a Senator, Harris introduced legislation to reform the bail system and advocated for the legalization and regulation of marijuana, as well as the expungement of nonviolent marijuana-related offenses.

The chapter also covers Harris’s perspective on police brutality and racist bias in law enforcement. She cites several statistics to illustrate racist bias in law enforcement: Black drivers in Ferguson, Missouri are 85% more likely to be pulled over than white drivers; Black men are arrested twice as often for drug use, despite using drugs at the same rate as white men; and Black men receive sentences nearly 20% longer than their white counterparts for similar crimes. She recounts how she partnered with the Oakland and Stockton Police Departments and the California Partnership for Safe Communities to create the first statewide implicit bias and procedural justice training program in the country to address these disparaties. Harris also emphasizes how the US must confront and root out police brutality, citing cases like those of Walter Scott and Philando Castile to illustrate the pervasive and tragic nature of this issue. As Attorney General, she made California the first state law enforcement agency to require body cameras for its agents, crediting the Black Lives Matter movement for creating the external pressure that enabled her to implement this reform.

Throughout the chapter, Harris emphasizes the importance of addressing the root causes of crime, providing second chances, and ensuring fairness in the justice system. The chapter concludes with a call for continued reform efforts, including electing progressive prosecutors and maintaining pressure from grassroots movements.