Kamala Harris Made Increasing Bail Costs a Priority as San Francisco DA

The first legislation Sen. Kamala Harris (D., Calif.) introduced when she took office aimed to upend the “unjust and unfair” cash bail system, but her top priority back in 2004 as San Francisco district attorney was to make bail in the city more expensive.

The current argument against cash bail put forth by Harris, who introduced the legislation with Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) and talks about it often on the campaign trail, is that it “penalizes the poor” by “design.” She points to cash bail in her latest book as a major contributor to systemic racism in the criminal justice system and advocates for it to be replaced.

This was not her view when she took the reins of the San Francisco district attorney’s office, according to a May 2004 interview she did with the Commonwealth Club of California. Harris told the audience one of her top “priorities” in her first 100 days as district attorney was making bail more expensive.

“On a daily basis, the work I have to do and where I have to put my mind in terms of my priorities is on things like sitting down with Russ [Guintini] my chief assistant and talking with him about the fact we are going to change the bail schedule in San Francisco,” Harris said. “We are in the process of asking the bench, the judiciary, to reevaluate the fact that we require people who have been arrested to pay a lot less than other counties.”

Harris said people were coming to San Francisco “to commit crimes because it’s cheaper to do it.”

“You know, we have to do something about that,” she said. “Those are things I’m spending my time on.”  MORE