Both former President Trump and Vice President Harris have extensive records when it comes to criminal justice policy – records that are sometimes completely opposed to one another, and at other times are aligned.
As Trump – who has a criminal record of his own, having been convicted on 34 felony counts - prepares to face off in the general election against Harris, a former prosecutor, district attorney and attorney general, their past actions on criminal justice have come into the spotlight. ABC News took a look at some of the candidates' policy records on crime, the death penalty, policing, and prison ref recidivism, in 2005, as the district attorney for San Francisco, Harris launched "Back on Track," a reentry initiative aimed at reducing recidivism among young, low-level, first-time felony drug-trafficking defendants. The program said fewer than 10% of its graduates reoffended after being released, compared to a 53% recidivism rate for California drug offenders within two years of release from incarceration. In 2018, Trump signed the First Step Act, a law similarly aimed at supporting recidivism reduction programs – a bill Harris voted for as a senator. The Council on Criminal Justice says recidivism is estimated to be 37% lower among First Step Act releases when compared to "similarly situated pre-FSA releases."
Trump has consistently been pro-death penalty. Federal executions began under his administration in 2020 for the first time in roughly 17 years. The federal government completed 13 executions in the final months of the Trump presidency. Harris has been consistent in her stance against the death penalty. Some have criticized Harris for decisions regarding several death penalty cases. She declined to take up the case of convicted murderer Kevin Cooper, who was sentenced to death for a quadruple homicide in 1983. His team had asked the state for additional DNA testing that they maintained could have exonerated him. Harris has changed her views on Cooper's request. The Trump administration commuted the sentences of more than 90 people and granted pardons to more than 140. The Biden-Harris administration has commuted the sentences of more than 120 individuals and granted pardons to 25. Harris has supported legalizing marijuana at the federal level, ending solitary confinement, embracing cash bail reform and ending federal mandatory minimum terms for drug offenders. She backed the Justice in Policing Act, which would limit "unnecessary" use of force and no-knock warrants, limit qualified immunity for police officers, and increase accountability for law enforcement misconduct. The Trump administration would increase funding to hire and retrain police officers, strengthen qualified immunity and other "protections" for police, increase penalties for assaults on law enforcement, and "surge federal prosecutors and the National Guard into high-crime communities."
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