Kamala Harris admits 'unintended consequences' in anti-truancy law while she was California AG

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) speaks during a town hall meeting at Canyon Springs High School on March 1, 2019 in North Las Vegas, Nevada. Harris is campaigning for the 2020 Democratic nomination for president. (Getty)

Kamala Harris expressed regret this week over a 2011 anti-truancy law she supported that put some parents in jail while she was California’s attorney general.

Speaking on the podcast “Pod Save America,” Sen. Harris said the law was never intended to punish parents for their child’s chronic truancy, but rather to get students on the right track in the classroom. She admitted, however, that it had “unintended consequences.”

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“My regret is that I have now heard stories where in some jurisdictions, DAs have criminalized the parents. And I regret that that has happened,” she said, which aired Wednesday. It marks the first time Harris has shown remorse over the law, The Los Angeles Times reported.

The law is an example of difficult questions Harris may face from progressive voters concerned with prison reform.

It’s not the first time Harris’ prosecutorial past has come under the microscope. Earlier this month, a New York Times op-ed writer claimed Harris has fought to uphold wrongful convictions as attorney general. She has also been criticized for her defense of the death penalty as attorney general only to say she would call for a federal moratorium of the death penalty if she were elected president.

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Harris made it clear that no parents were arrested while she was district attorney in San Francisco and the arrests were in jurisdictions outside of hers.