The time may be right for Kamala Harris

[bemildred]

Kamala Harris, the state's next attorney general, last week announced a transition leadership team that was a marvel in its political heft: two former secretaries of State — of the country, not of California — and a host of other luminaries.

The list drew attention for its implication that Harris' ambitions were not stunted by her nail-biter victory over Republican Steve Cooley in November. But as much as it might have hinted at her future as a candidate for an even higher office, the list also underscored Harris' intent to accomplish something harder: upending decades of California attitudes about crime and punishment.

Along with some of the better-known names were a number of reformist police chiefs, like Los Angeles' former leader William Bratton, San Francisco's George Gascon and Oakland's Anthony Batts, who in the future may serve as symbolic assurance to voters as Harris works to make the criminal justice system reform criminals rather than lock them up perpetually.

Californians have been far more ensconced in the lock-'em-up camp, of course, loading ballots with measures to extend sentences and preclude judicial flexibility. But Harris believes that she has a new and powerful ally: the foundering economy.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-theweek-20101219,0,4210219.story

[tularetom]

1. The prison industrial complex is breaking this state

Aided and abetted by the insane war on some drugs and political scare tactics.

Good to hear that somebody in a position to do something about it actually intends to change it.

[bemildred]

2. Yeah, I'm happy with my vote for her. nt