Joe Biden has chosen Senator Kamala Harris (opens in new tab) (Democrat) as his running mate for the 2020 election. Last year, Senator Harris was the leading candidate among the many Democratic candidates (open in new tab) running for president. However, Senator Harris' background as a California State Attorney and Attorney General was a sensitive subject and a source of concern long before the presidential campaign.

"The concerns are overblown, yes, no doubt," Harris told CBS News (opens in new tab). But she could not escape addressing her own controversial background. It took center stage during the second Democratic debate last year. When the topic of criminal justice reform came up, Harris faced a barrage of criticism from fellow candidates, including Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard.

Harris then refuted Gabbard's claims, stating (opens in new tab) Harris "has done the job of significantly reforming the criminal justice system in a state of 40 million people. I'm proud of the decision I made to not just give fancy speeches and be in the legislature and give speeches on the floor," she said (opens in new tab). 'But I actually did the job of being in a position to exercise the power that I have to reform a system that is badly in need of reform.'

Obviously, there are two very different answers.

In the wake of the murders of George Floyd, Breanna Taylor, Ahmoud Arberry, and countless other Black Americans, Harris is more than ever committed to criminal justice reform (you can read her entire policy on her website here (opens in a new tab)) and police is expected to share her views on police brutality. So let's put this controversy in perspective. Here are some important things to know about Kamala Harris' career as Attorney General:

Harris' first career was as District Attorney General of San Francisco. Her term was seven years, from 2004 to 2011. She then served as California Attorney General from 2011 to 2017 before becoming a senator.

In 2005, as District Attorney, Harris launched an initiative to reduce recidivism among first-time drug traffickers; known as "Back on Track" (open in new tab), the program lasts 12 to 18 months and provides participants with a Personal Responsibility Plan (PRP); a PRP is a "plan to reduce recidivism among first-time drug trafficking offenders. consist of setting goals related to employment, child care, and access to education in lieu of serving time in prison. Participants are also required to perform 220 hours of community service. To graduate from the program, each participant must find a job, enroll in school full-time, and comply with all PRP requirements.

"Closing the revolving door of the criminal justice system requires innovative, results-oriented policies and initiatives that help offenders get their lives back on track," Harris said (opens in new tab).

In 2015, under Harris' jurisdiction as state attorney general, California became the first state agency to adopt a body camera program (opens in new tab) and also conducted "the first of its kind" (opens in new tab) law enforcement training. The then-presidential candidate reminded people of her work during one debate.

What was not mentioned, however, was that the wearing of body cameras was not required of all local police officers in the state, only those working directly under Harris. (Opens in new tab) According to PBS (opens in new tab), that same year, Harris warned against a "one-size-fits-all" solution. As a general matter, Harris told the Sacramento Bee, "I think as a general matter, law enforcement leaders in a given area should invest in the ability of their departments to exercise discretion in thinking about what technology to employ based on the needs and resources they have." (opens in new tab).

And the training Harris referred to is known as "Principle Policing: Procedural Justice and Implicit Bias." (opens in new tab) According to a press release from the Attorney General's Office (opens in new tab), the course is a total of eight hours and "focuses on policing approaches that emphasize respect, listening, neutrality, and trust, while recognizing and addressing implicit biases that may be obstacles to these approaches in six The report consists of "six areas of focus". According to the press release (opens in new tab), just over 90 applicants from 30 institutions applied.

According to NPR (opens in new tab), in 2011, the Supreme Court required California to reduce the number of inmates by 33,000 over the next two years due to starvation, inhumane treatment, and even death from overpopulation. But in 2014, according to the LA Times (opens in new tab), a federal judge "ordered that all nonviolent second-strike offenders be eligible for parole after serving half of their sentences."

As the LA Times noted, most of those prisoners worked as groundskeepers, janitors, and kitchen staff. Harris' lawyer argued in court that releasing them would drastically reduce the prison's workforce (seriously). But Harris told BuzzFeed (opens in new tab) that he was "shocked" to hear their defense." I was very troubled by what I read. I need to find out what we actually said in court," she said (opens in new tab).

In 2010, Harris was adamantly opposed to recreational marijuana use. After spending 20 years in court, Harris believes that drug sales are harmful to the community," then-campaign manager Brian Brokaw told Capitol Weekly (open in new tab)." Harris supports the legal use of medicinal marijuana, but nothing more."

At the 2015 California Democratic Convention (open in new tab), she called for repeal of the federal ban on medical marijuana, but reserved the word legalization. It was not until 2018, when she became a senator, that she co-signed Senator Cory Booker's marijuana justice bill.

"Right now in this country, we have people being arrested, being prosecuted, and spending time in jail and prison, all because they used drugs that should otherwise be considered legal," Harris said in a press release (opens in new tab). 'Legalizing marijuana at the federal level is the smart thing to do and the right thing to do. I know that as a former prosecutor and as a senator"

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In her 2011 inaugural address, Harris noted that in 2010 there were 600,000 out-of-school students in elementary schools alone. To remedy the problem, she passed a law (opens in new tab) making it a misdemeanor for parents to allow their children (kindergarten through eighth grade) to miss more than 10 percent of school without excuse. Parents of truant children could be fined $2,000 or imprisoned for up to one year. Harris said at his inauguration in 2011, "We are issuing a warning to parents." If you fail to live up to your responsibilities to your children, we are going to work to make sure you face the full force and consequences of the law."

However, the policy ended up generalizing the problem of truancy and placing the blame on parents with untenable circumstances (opens in new tab). Harris later apologized for criminalizing parents in an interview with Pod Save America (opens in new tab). He said, "This was never something that was brought to my attention."

"I regret that it happened and that I thought what I did might have led to that.

In 2016, she was one of the leaders in the downfall of Backpage.com, a classified ad site. In her filing (opens in new tab), she charged the site's owners with money laundering, pimping, and conspiracy to pimp. The majority of sex workers used the site to find clients in need of escorts and other services, and many of them considered it one of the safest options for comprehensively vetting new clients. She recently said (open in new tab) that she "has no regrets" about having the site shut down.

She recently spoke about the decriminalization of sex work and (open in new tab) said she supports the move, which some have called "a sea change." In an interview with The Root (open in new tab) last year, she said: "There is an ecosystem that includes crimes that hurt people, and on issues like that, I don't think that those who hurt other human beings or profit from their exploitation should be immune from criminal prosecution. But when we are talking about consenting adults, we should consider that we cannot criminalize consensual behavior."