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Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor's Plan to Make Us Safer
The old approaches to fighting crime just aren't working. Two thirds of people released from prison commit another crime within two years. In Smart on Crime, career prosecutor Kamala D. Harris shatters the old distinctions, rooted in false choices and myths, and offers a compelling argument for how to make the criminal justice system truly, not just rhetorically, tough. Harris spells out the necessary shifts that will increase public safety, reduce costs, and strengthen our communities when our politicians and law enforcement officials learn how to become tough and smart on crime.
205 pages, Hardcover
First published January 11, 2009
210 people are currently reading
1660 people want to read
About the author
Kamala Harris
17 books1,409 followersKamala Devi Harris (born Kamala Iyer Harris) is an American politician and attorney who is the 49th and current vice president of the United States since 2021, under President Joe Biden. She is the first female vice president and the highest-ranking female official in U.S. history, as well as the first African-American and first Asian-American vice president. A member of the Democratic Party, she served as a U.S. senator from California from 2017 to 2021 and the attorney general of California from 2011 to 2017. Harris is the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2024 presidential election.
Born in Oakland, California, Harris graduated from Howard University and the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. She began her law career in the office of the district attorney (DA) of Alameda County, before being recruited to the San Francisco DA's Office and later the city attorney of San Francisco's office. In 2003, she was elected DA of San Francisco. She was elected attorney general of California in 2010 and re-elected in 2014. Harris served as the junior U.S. senator from California from 2017 to 2021; she defeated Loretta Sanchez in the 2016 Senate election to become the second African-American woman and the first South Asian American to serve in the U.S. Senate.
As a senator, Harris advocated for strict gun control laws, the DREAM Act, and federal legalization of cannabis, as well as healthcare and taxation reform. She gained a national profile for her pointed questioning of Trump administration officials during Senate hearings, including Trump's second Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh.
Harris sought the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, but withdrew from the race before the primaries. Biden selected her to be his running mate, and their ticket went on to defeat the incumbent president and vice president, Donald Trump and Mike Pence, in the 2020 election. Harris and Biden were inaugurated on January 20, 2021. After Biden's withdrawal from the 2024 presidential election, Harris launched her own presidential campaign with Biden's endorsement. On July 22, 2024, Harris secured enough non-binding support from delegates to become the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party.
Born in Oakland, California, Harris graduated from Howard University and the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. She began her law career in the office of the district attorney (DA) of Alameda County, before being recruited to the San Francisco DA's Office and later the city attorney of San Francisco's office. In 2003, she was elected DA of San Francisco. She was elected attorney general of California in 2010 and re-elected in 2014. Harris served as the junior U.S. senator from California from 2017 to 2021; she defeated Loretta Sanchez in the 2016 Senate election to become the second African-American woman and the first South Asian American to serve in the U.S. Senate.
As a senator, Harris advocated for strict gun control laws, the DREAM Act, and federal legalization of cannabis, as well as healthcare and taxation reform. She gained a national profile for her pointed questioning of Trump administration officials during Senate hearings, including Trump's second Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh.
Harris sought the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, but withdrew from the race before the primaries. Biden selected her to be his running mate, and their ticket went on to defeat the incumbent president and vice president, Donald Trump and Mike Pence, in the 2020 election. Harris and Biden were inaugurated on January 20, 2021. After Biden's withdrawal from the 2024 presidential election, Harris launched her own presidential campaign with Biden's endorsement. On July 22, 2024, Harris secured enough non-binding support from delegates to become the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party.
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March 11, 2019
For our political book club, for the purposes of primary research, we elected to read Kamala Harris' 2009 book on criminal justice reform, Smart on Crime.
We already discussed it at as much length as we could muster, which was not very much, because the book is both short and fairly repetitive. It's basically a series of heavily overlapping essays on why re-entry programs are good and cutting them in the '80s and '90s was a mistake, which, sure, it was. The book is more remarkable for what isn't there than what is; it's definitely a pre-Ferguson book, and issues like stop and frisk and "officer-involved shootings" are discussed briefly as occasional issues within the system that should be scrubbed wherever they pop up. The level of professional-class institutional faith in the system, that good hardworking people are mostly trying to do their jobs more or less correctly, seems pretty cleaned-up-for-TV if you've ever read the DOJ's Ferguson report, or anything about the Chicago Police Department, or any number of other special investigations into police forces around the country that have been popping up in the last several years.
"Crime" here is also portrayed to mean almost exclusively street crime -- stuff people get up to when they don't have a proper job to keep them busy and productive. There's very little mention of the most underprosecuted type of crime in the U.S. -- crime that you need access to fancy institutions to commit, like corporate fraud. For a book published in 2009, meaning it was likely being written as the housing crisis was collapsing the world economy in 2008, this seems a significant omission.
In a lot of the chapters the content is basically fine but the omissions and the tone are what made me uncomfortable; there's a lot of rhetorical covering from the right so there's repeated rhetoric along the lines of how bummed law enforcement is that just locking up masses of people and leaving them in prison isn't enough to fix crime, they really wish it was, but unfortunately the science says we gotta actually help people to reduce recidivism -- don't worry, we're not going soft on them or anything!! It's a bit off-putting.
An exception to this is the chapter on sex work, where the content is even worse than the rhetorical style. It's just... it's so bad. It's a very bad chapter. Go read a book or article by actual sex workers instead. Anti-trafficking crackdowns without decriminalizing sex work really fuck with people.
Overall I guess I'm glad I read it because it was interesting to compare it to other criminal justice books we've read in book club, namely The New Jim Crow and Locking Up Our Own, but I didn't really enjoy reading it and I don't think I'll be supporting Harris in the primary unless we wind up in The Worst Timeline and the only folks on my ballot on Super Tuesday are her and Joe Biden.
Originally posted at Soft on police.
We already discussed it at as much length as we could muster, which was not very much, because the book is both short and fairly repetitive. It's basically a series of heavily overlapping essays on why re-entry programs are good and cutting them in the '80s and '90s was a mistake, which, sure, it was. The book is more remarkable for what isn't there than what is; it's definitely a pre-Ferguson book, and issues like stop and frisk and "officer-involved shootings" are discussed briefly as occasional issues within the system that should be scrubbed wherever they pop up. The level of professional-class institutional faith in the system, that good hardworking people are mostly trying to do their jobs more or less correctly, seems pretty cleaned-up-for-TV if you've ever read the DOJ's Ferguson report, or anything about the Chicago Police Department, or any number of other special investigations into police forces around the country that have been popping up in the last several years.
"Crime" here is also portrayed to mean almost exclusively street crime -- stuff people get up to when they don't have a proper job to keep them busy and productive. There's very little mention of the most underprosecuted type of crime in the U.S. -- crime that you need access to fancy institutions to commit, like corporate fraud. For a book published in 2009, meaning it was likely being written as the housing crisis was collapsing the world economy in 2008, this seems a significant omission.
In a lot of the chapters the content is basically fine but the omissions and the tone are what made me uncomfortable; there's a lot of rhetorical covering from the right so there's repeated rhetoric along the lines of how bummed law enforcement is that just locking up masses of people and leaving them in prison isn't enough to fix crime, they really wish it was, but unfortunately the science says we gotta actually help people to reduce recidivism -- don't worry, we're not going soft on them or anything!! It's a bit off-putting.
An exception to this is the chapter on sex work, where the content is even worse than the rhetorical style. It's just... it's so bad. It's a very bad chapter. Go read a book or article by actual sex workers instead. Anti-trafficking crackdowns without decriminalizing sex work really fuck with people.
Overall I guess I'm glad I read it because it was interesting to compare it to other criminal justice books we've read in book club, namely The New Jim Crow and Locking Up Our Own, but I didn't really enjoy reading it and I don't think I'll be supporting Harris in the primary unless we wind up in The Worst Timeline and the only folks on my ballot on Super Tuesday are her and Joe Biden.
Originally posted at Soft on police.
September 2, 2011
Kamala Harris is my state attorney general, and I voted for her, so I figured I should probably, you know, read her book and all. Generally, I approve! Do not regret voting for her and I hope she can put some of the things she talks about into practice.
The writing is nothing brilliant- very workmanlike. She gives you her thesis, she provides supporting evidence, she reiterates the conclusion. Which makes sense- this isn't meant to be a memoir- it's more of an instruction manual.
A lot of this is stuff I already knew- most prisoners are nonviolent offenders, most people who commit crimes will go back to prison, people you know are as likely or more likely to commit crimes against you than strangers.
Some stuff I didn't expect- early in the book, Harris calls out liberal for prejudice against law enforcement, and, well. Guilty as charged, I guess. I am by nature fairly suspicious of the police. But one of the myths that she addresses is the notion that poor people don't want more cops. According to her- and studies- in fact, they do. They don't necessarily trust the cops, but they do want them there. Which, when she lays it out, makes sense, but is the opposite of what I'd thought.
She also supports prosecuting parents (of elementary students) for truancy, which seemed to me like a *horrible* idea- another way of punishing people for being poor, basically. But the way she describes, prosecution was just another tool to use to help parents understand the seriousness of the issue, and very few were actually prosecuted. She understands that there are *reasons* why people don't send their children to school; it's not always because they just don't care. She works with people to figure out ways around those reasons. And it seemed to *work*.
That's really what I like about Harris- she's very pragmatic. Do prisoners "deserve" the second chance that a lot of the programs she outlines provides? To her, it's almost immaterial. These prisoners *will* re-enter society, therefor we need to do what we can to keep them from committing crimes. Keeping social services from them because they don't "deserve" it is cutting our nose of to spite our face.
My one serious reservation is her section on internet crimes- not that she's totally wrong. But she references Oprah's show on internet pedophiles, and... well. Let's just say some sources there were dubious? It makes me sad, because in other sections she's very very into getting the facts, getting the correct data, and how important that is.
Anyway. I have lots of thoughts! I want to think about it more. But on first read-through, I think she's on the right track, and I'm glad I voted for her.
The writing is nothing brilliant- very workmanlike. She gives you her thesis, she provides supporting evidence, she reiterates the conclusion. Which makes sense- this isn't meant to be a memoir- it's more of an instruction manual.
A lot of this is stuff I already knew- most prisoners are nonviolent offenders, most people who commit crimes will go back to prison, people you know are as likely or more likely to commit crimes against you than strangers.
Some stuff I didn't expect- early in the book, Harris calls out liberal for prejudice against law enforcement, and, well. Guilty as charged, I guess. I am by nature fairly suspicious of the police. But one of the myths that she addresses is the notion that poor people don't want more cops. According to her- and studies- in fact, they do. They don't necessarily trust the cops, but they do want them there. Which, when she lays it out, makes sense, but is the opposite of what I'd thought.
She also supports prosecuting parents (of elementary students) for truancy, which seemed to me like a *horrible* idea- another way of punishing people for being poor, basically. But the way she describes, prosecution was just another tool to use to help parents understand the seriousness of the issue, and very few were actually prosecuted. She understands that there are *reasons* why people don't send their children to school; it's not always because they just don't care. She works with people to figure out ways around those reasons. And it seemed to *work*.
That's really what I like about Harris- she's very pragmatic. Do prisoners "deserve" the second chance that a lot of the programs she outlines provides? To her, it's almost immaterial. These prisoners *will* re-enter society, therefor we need to do what we can to keep them from committing crimes. Keeping social services from them because they don't "deserve" it is cutting our nose of to spite our face.
My one serious reservation is her section on internet crimes- not that she's totally wrong. But she references Oprah's show on internet pedophiles, and... well. Let's just say some sources there were dubious? It makes me sad, because in other sections she's very very into getting the facts, getting the correct data, and how important that is.
Anyway. I have lots of thoughts! I want to think about it more. But on first read-through, I think she's on the right track, and I'm glad I voted for her.
May 22, 2012
The goal of criminal justice is the prevention of crime; punishment is a means to this end. But it has become, in the minds of the populace, and the government they elect, the only hammer in the toolbox. Harris argues convincingly that focus on punishment has caused us to lose sight of the goal of crime prevention, and ironically, has been detrimental to that goal.
It's a thesis worth exploring. However, Harris simply doesn't have enough to say to fill out a book. She stuffs the pages by saying the same things over again in different words, and offering a few examples of non-traditional approaches to crime prevention. Even these are nothing new; they are the well-worn (and expensive) strategies of intervention and rehabilitation, which "save" a few hundred non-violent offenders, and provide photo-ops for liberal prosecutors. (Granted, the current models of incarceration "save" even fewer, and are perhaps more expensive!)
The chapters are helpfully terminated with a brief outline of the major points. In the aggregate, these summaries would make a few pages of interesting and thought-provoking reading.
It's a thesis worth exploring. However, Harris simply doesn't have enough to say to fill out a book. She stuffs the pages by saying the same things over again in different words, and offering a few examples of non-traditional approaches to crime prevention. Even these are nothing new; they are the well-worn (and expensive) strategies of intervention and rehabilitation, which "save" a few hundred non-violent offenders, and provide photo-ops for liberal prosecutors. (Granted, the current models of incarceration "save" even fewer, and are perhaps more expensive!)
The chapters are helpfully terminated with a brief outline of the major points. In the aggregate, these summaries would make a few pages of interesting and thought-provoking reading.
July 16, 2019
This is a good, if repetitive, read if you’re looking to learn more about Kamala’s views on restructuring our criminal justice system. Recidivism and truancy are the pillars of her argument, the latter of which came as a surprise as I was totally unaware of the insane connection between truancy and criminal behavior. Keep your children in school, everyone!
September 25, 2011
Kamala Harris presents a clear and optimistic plan for crime prevention and reduction of recidivism. She gives solutions for all members of society to work with. I learned a lot about our legal system and the challenges that face it from this book.
December 31, 2020
As she's now the VP-elect, I was curious about some of her history with police and prosecution, and how she's going to address the current state of things with police brutality, revolving door drug crimes, etc. Most of the information was fairly straightforward, although some of the specifics of the various programs were interesting, and I'm curious how they might work on a national level. I hadn't thought about truancy as being so important to address to prevent future crime, but it totally makes sense. If she's able to implement or influence some of these types of programs on a national scale, it could prove very beneficial to taxpayers.
Wasn't the most well-researched book I've ever read, but I think she was speaking more from experience than anything, so I can give her some grace for that.
We shall see how things play out...
Wasn't the most well-researched book I've ever read, but I think she was speaking more from experience than anything, so I can give her some grace for that.
We shall see how things play out...
August 6, 2024
The best thing about this book is that it gives insights into the foundation on which Harris builds policy. The ideas are comprehensive, taking in the whole scope of the influences that lead to crime in order to create reactions that are actually effective at meeting the core problems. It factors factors that occur both before and after a person comes in contact with the criminal justice system. The pyramid analogy is an informative framework as well. The most encouraging aspect of the policies discussed here is that they are focused on dealing with people and not just playing with statistics. And yet, she still is able to demonstrate how that approach results in still better outcomes in statistics.
February 13, 2021
I gave this 5 stars because she is so smart and I’m so happy she’s our Vice President! The book rambles on a little, but I appreciate her passion, research and experience on this issue that affects all of us!
January 7, 2024
Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor’s Plan to Make us Safer by Kamala D. Harris.
4/5 rating. 206 pages.
Book #61 of 2020. Read August 26, 2020.
This is an amazing book about disrupting and changing the way we approach crime prevention and criminal justice.
Kamala does a great job using her experience as a District Attorney to explain many of the myths about the criminal justice system, crime in general, and what needs to change to reduce crime and make our country safer.
Her main takeaways are:
1) Some criminals need to be excluded from society permanently.
2) For those crimes that are severe but where offenders will return to their community, serious efforts at reform need to take place: educational programs, substance-abuse programs, job training, and so many more. But these cases need to be looked at in cases of recidivism and such, not just locking people up as retribution without a view of how to make them positive members of society when they return to it.
3) For nonviolent offenders, community-based interventions and programs need to be implemented. We need to look at how we can break these people of their cycle of release and re-arrests. Like the more serious offenders above, programs need to be thought of for how to effectively use any jail time, but re-entry is also vital for their future.
4) Victims need to be supported and empowered. So often, these people are left without help such as therapy, or community programs to educate, and promote healing after their experience. These people who are not helped can either become victims again or escalate into crime.
If you have questions about Kamala, definitely read this book! It gained my trust for how Kamala would act as VP for our country. She is incredibly smart and compassionate, but I love that she is also tough and open to new ways to fix old problems. Hopefully with the authority of Vice President, she could make a huge impact on our crime problems in this country. Her leadership as DA in San Francisco show that she will be great in any position of power. Now it's time to vote for her and @joebiden in November!!
Quotes:
"My mother used to laugh when she told the story about a time I was fussing as a toddler: She leaned down to ask me, 'Kamala, what's wrong? What do you want?' and I wailed back, 'Fweedom.'"
"The sad fact is that two-thirds of those released from prison or jail re-offend within two or three years. In California, we now spend more than $25 billion annually on crime—more than twice what we spend on higher education—but 70 percent of the 125,000 individuals released from our prisons each year are back behind bars within a couple of years."
"Smart on Crime has three pillars: maintain a relentless and intense focus on violence and the prosecution of violent criminals; identify key points in the lives of young offenders and stop them from continuing and escalating their criminal behavior; and support victims of crime and, in the process, foster crime prevention."
"According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 96 percent of all arrests are of nonviolent offenders."
"What the numbers say loud and clear, however, is that most nonviolent offenders are learning the wrong lesson, and in many cases, they are becoming better and more hardened criminals during their prison stays."
"The federal government spent more than $36 billion on direct expenditures for criminal and civil justice in fiscal year 2006, for example, while state governments spent over $69 billion, and local governments spent over $109 billion. We absolutely should not and cannot pinch pennies when it comes to convicting and removing violent offenders from our midst; but each nonviolent crime costs many thousands of dollars to prosecute, and it costs $25,000 to $30,000 annually to house each offender in prison."
"In the chapters that follow, I will show you an award-winning initiative from San Francisco’s County Jail where our innovative Sheriff Michael Hennessey has transformed the days of some violent prisoners from hours of mindless television watching and simmering anger, to intense, twelve-hour sessions involving anger management training, peer counseling, and positive educational programs that sharply reduce violent behavior in those offenders both in jail and after they are released."
"When you arrest people and send them 200 miles away and think they’ll come back fixed, all you’re really doing is punishing the public. They’ll come out meaner, madder, and more dangerous than when they went in." - Former Texas District Attorney, Ronnie Earle
"What’s also different is that these individuals, instead of spending months or years in prison, have spent a year working hard and learning to be accountable to their families and communities. While others incarcerated for similar offenses have spent their days in crowded prisons watching television, trying to get their hands on smuggled drugs, and fraternizing with gang members, Back on Track participants have been performing community service. They have learned worklife skills—not just the mechanics of certain jobs, but things like how to behave in the workplace and how to be accountable. They have checked in regularly with the judge who supervises this program, reviews any signs that their commitment to the program has waned, and warns them that such a path will lead straight to prison. They have routinely undergone drug testing, and are graduating from our program drug-free and with, at a minimum, a high-school-equivalency diploma and a steady job. The fathers among them are now in good standing on their child-support payments, and they all have taken parenting classes. Because they have completed this rigorous program, the felony charge is going to be cleared from their records by the end of our ceremony tonight. And that means that their employment prospects will be infinitely better."
"We did not develop Back on Track out of pity or compassion. We reserve the right to send participants straight to sentencing at any time if they violate the program rules. And if they are charged with a new offense, they go directly to jail, no questions asked. Not everybody makes it. But among those who have, we have reduced the re-offense rate to less than 10 percent in a population in which the average re-offense rate is over 50 percent. For every one hundred participants we have so far served, we have saved our city at least $1 million per year in local jail costs. When you add in the total expense of cases to taxpayers, including court costs, public defenders, state prison, and probation, the savings are closer to $2 million. And we can barely begin to calculate the value of these individuals’ future productivity, taxes and child support paid, and the improvement in the quality of their families."
"The first and most stubborn myth that surrounds the crime debate, a myth that is a direct product of partisan politics and one that keeps us from reforming our criminal justice system, is that as a law enforcement leader you are either tough on crime or soft on crime. This myth is harmful because it has created campaigns, laws, and initiatives based on false choices. It fuels the notion that we are playing a zero-sum game, in which every dollar spent on crime prevention takes a dollar from a murder investigation. The alternative, and the more productive course is to forge partnerships that operate at different levels and create systems that break complex crime cycles down to elements we can target more effectively."
"The truly tough response to a crime problem always begins with being smart about it, understanding the causes of crime and what makes individuals offend and re-offend. It takes into account a broader understanding of victims—who they are, how they’re being victimized, and how we might intervene to teach them to protect themselves in the future. This is as true for violent crime as it is for nonviolent crime."
"As Texas D.A. Ronnie Earle puts it, officials who don't differentiate between types of crime and just talk tough about all of it 'are really tougher on the taxpayer than they are on crime. They're not reducing crime.'"
"The Rockefeller Drug Laws filled prisons, but they didn’t appear to dampen the drug trade. Meanwhile, the combination of large numbers of newly released felons without jobs, in many cases without high school diplomas, and often with an active drug addiction, created what prosecutors in Brooklyn and elsewhere saw as a revolving door of addicts committing crimes to get money for drugs, getting arrested and sent to prison, emerging from prison still wanting drugs, and starting the cycle all over again."
"We can't prison-build our way to a safer society."
"But as we discussed in the last chapter, recent decades reversed the posture of law enforcement, both police and prosecutors, from focusing on preventing crime to reacting to crimes after they occur. The new thinking was: Catch more criminals and lock them up for longer sentences, and the rest will take care of itself. Today, many prosecutors, like myself, have come to believe that this simplistic approach to crime is falling tragically short of the goal of making our streets safer and is emblematic of a system badly in need of reform."
"A 2008 report by America's Promise Alliance, which is chaired by Alma Powell, the wife of former Secretary of State Colin Powell, showed that 17 percent of the nation's fifty largest cities had high school graduation rates lower than 50 percent. In Detroit's public schools, only 25 percent of the students who enrolled in grade nine graduated from high school, while 30.5 percent graduated in Indianapolis public schools and 34 percent received diplomas in the Cleveland Municipal City School District."
"Overall, about 70 percent of U.S. students graduate from public and private schools on time with a regular diploma, and about 1.2 million students drop out annually."
"As Secretary Powell put it: 'When more than 1 million students a year drop out of high school, it's more than a problem, it's a catastrophe.'"
"After I took office and began to focus on truancy, I asked for a study of our murder profiles from 2004 to 2008. It turned out that 94 percent of San Francisco's homicide victims under the age of twenty-five were high school dropouts. The demographics of the murderers are the same."
"Our jails and prisons are packed to overflowing with nonviolent offenders who are there for drug crimes, property crimes, and parole violations related to previous offenses, and they typically are serving relatively short sentences. Nationally, the average is about two years."
"The broadly held assumption that simply increasing the penalty for any crime will automatically deter more people from committing the crime is a myth."
"With strong leadership, we can have attentive policing in poor communities without racial profiling and excessive force. The two are not mutually exclusive."
"'Traditional incarceration does not lend itself to introspection or accountability,' [Sunny Schwartz] notes. 'That offends me as a taxpayer and as a citizen. I think to be held accountable in a smart, effective way, we need programs from sunup to sundown in prison. Every cell should be filled with educational, vocational, therapeutic programs that respond to the deficiencies and anti-social behavior of the inmates.'"
"We have to ask, ultimately is it safer (to the communities to which they eventually will be released)(ital) to simply warehouse them in prisons where gangs have become increasingly strong and let them 'do time' or to develop initiatives in prison that require them to work on anger management, overcome addictions, improve their educational status, and possibly prepare for some kind of job so they can pay their bills."
"Eventually, we need to evolve to the point where re-entry is an established and respected process that involves partnerships among community stakeholders, and we need to think outside our own boxes not only to deal with re-entering prisoners but to better anticipate what the consequences of re-entry and other smart programs will be in our communities."
"Prosecute the violent offender, break the cycles of crime, and support and empower the victim."
"The Fulton County District Attorney's Office initiated an incentive program at three elementary schools in the Atlanta Public School system that were struggling with high absenteeism. The Dwight Howard Foundation, Target, Inc., and AirTran Airways got together and offered a special incentive for perfect attendance: a new bike and a helmet. The three schools gained a 39 percent overall increase in their perfect attendance record for the 2007-2008 school year. Few things in life are more exciting to a young child than a new bike. Linking that prize to the notion that school attendance matters and that it is a priority for the community is not an obvious activity for a district attorney's office to coordinate, but I can almost guarantee that there are crimes that don't(ital) happen and don't have to be prosecuted because many of those children are walking to school dreaming about those bikes instead of ditching class."
"Says Chief Fealy, 'I used to do the typical cop thing when crime went up. I'd say "Well, it's the economy, or there are so many things we can't control." But I worked for Chief Stan Knee in Austin, Texas, before I came here, and one day when I said that he looked at me and said, "B.S., Jim. The crime stats are our report card and we're failing." That began to open up my eyes. My prior viewpoint was all about response; what I now believe is that through focus and attention we can influence crime.'"
4/5 rating. 206 pages.
Book #61 of 2020. Read August 26, 2020.
This is an amazing book about disrupting and changing the way we approach crime prevention and criminal justice.
Kamala does a great job using her experience as a District Attorney to explain many of the myths about the criminal justice system, crime in general, and what needs to change to reduce crime and make our country safer.
Her main takeaways are:
1) Some criminals need to be excluded from society permanently.
2) For those crimes that are severe but where offenders will return to their community, serious efforts at reform need to take place: educational programs, substance-abuse programs, job training, and so many more. But these cases need to be looked at in cases of recidivism and such, not just locking people up as retribution without a view of how to make them positive members of society when they return to it.
3) For nonviolent offenders, community-based interventions and programs need to be implemented. We need to look at how we can break these people of their cycle of release and re-arrests. Like the more serious offenders above, programs need to be thought of for how to effectively use any jail time, but re-entry is also vital for their future.
4) Victims need to be supported and empowered. So often, these people are left without help such as therapy, or community programs to educate, and promote healing after their experience. These people who are not helped can either become victims again or escalate into crime.
If you have questions about Kamala, definitely read this book! It gained my trust for how Kamala would act as VP for our country. She is incredibly smart and compassionate, but I love that she is also tough and open to new ways to fix old problems. Hopefully with the authority of Vice President, she could make a huge impact on our crime problems in this country. Her leadership as DA in San Francisco show that she will be great in any position of power. Now it's time to vote for her and @joebiden in November!!
Quotes:
"My mother used to laugh when she told the story about a time I was fussing as a toddler: She leaned down to ask me, 'Kamala, what's wrong? What do you want?' and I wailed back, 'Fweedom.'"
"The sad fact is that two-thirds of those released from prison or jail re-offend within two or three years. In California, we now spend more than $25 billion annually on crime—more than twice what we spend on higher education—but 70 percent of the 125,000 individuals released from our prisons each year are back behind bars within a couple of years."
"Smart on Crime has three pillars: maintain a relentless and intense focus on violence and the prosecution of violent criminals; identify key points in the lives of young offenders and stop them from continuing and escalating their criminal behavior; and support victims of crime and, in the process, foster crime prevention."
"According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 96 percent of all arrests are of nonviolent offenders."
"What the numbers say loud and clear, however, is that most nonviolent offenders are learning the wrong lesson, and in many cases, they are becoming better and more hardened criminals during their prison stays."
"The federal government spent more than $36 billion on direct expenditures for criminal and civil justice in fiscal year 2006, for example, while state governments spent over $69 billion, and local governments spent over $109 billion. We absolutely should not and cannot pinch pennies when it comes to convicting and removing violent offenders from our midst; but each nonviolent crime costs many thousands of dollars to prosecute, and it costs $25,000 to $30,000 annually to house each offender in prison."
"In the chapters that follow, I will show you an award-winning initiative from San Francisco’s County Jail where our innovative Sheriff Michael Hennessey has transformed the days of some violent prisoners from hours of mindless television watching and simmering anger, to intense, twelve-hour sessions involving anger management training, peer counseling, and positive educational programs that sharply reduce violent behavior in those offenders both in jail and after they are released."
"When you arrest people and send them 200 miles away and think they’ll come back fixed, all you’re really doing is punishing the public. They’ll come out meaner, madder, and more dangerous than when they went in." - Former Texas District Attorney, Ronnie Earle
"What’s also different is that these individuals, instead of spending months or years in prison, have spent a year working hard and learning to be accountable to their families and communities. While others incarcerated for similar offenses have spent their days in crowded prisons watching television, trying to get their hands on smuggled drugs, and fraternizing with gang members, Back on Track participants have been performing community service. They have learned worklife skills—not just the mechanics of certain jobs, but things like how to behave in the workplace and how to be accountable. They have checked in regularly with the judge who supervises this program, reviews any signs that their commitment to the program has waned, and warns them that such a path will lead straight to prison. They have routinely undergone drug testing, and are graduating from our program drug-free and with, at a minimum, a high-school-equivalency diploma and a steady job. The fathers among them are now in good standing on their child-support payments, and they all have taken parenting classes. Because they have completed this rigorous program, the felony charge is going to be cleared from their records by the end of our ceremony tonight. And that means that their employment prospects will be infinitely better."
"We did not develop Back on Track out of pity or compassion. We reserve the right to send participants straight to sentencing at any time if they violate the program rules. And if they are charged with a new offense, they go directly to jail, no questions asked. Not everybody makes it. But among those who have, we have reduced the re-offense rate to less than 10 percent in a population in which the average re-offense rate is over 50 percent. For every one hundred participants we have so far served, we have saved our city at least $1 million per year in local jail costs. When you add in the total expense of cases to taxpayers, including court costs, public defenders, state prison, and probation, the savings are closer to $2 million. And we can barely begin to calculate the value of these individuals’ future productivity, taxes and child support paid, and the improvement in the quality of their families."
"The first and most stubborn myth that surrounds the crime debate, a myth that is a direct product of partisan politics and one that keeps us from reforming our criminal justice system, is that as a law enforcement leader you are either tough on crime or soft on crime. This myth is harmful because it has created campaigns, laws, and initiatives based on false choices. It fuels the notion that we are playing a zero-sum game, in which every dollar spent on crime prevention takes a dollar from a murder investigation. The alternative, and the more productive course is to forge partnerships that operate at different levels and create systems that break complex crime cycles down to elements we can target more effectively."
"The truly tough response to a crime problem always begins with being smart about it, understanding the causes of crime and what makes individuals offend and re-offend. It takes into account a broader understanding of victims—who they are, how they’re being victimized, and how we might intervene to teach them to protect themselves in the future. This is as true for violent crime as it is for nonviolent crime."
"As Texas D.A. Ronnie Earle puts it, officials who don't differentiate between types of crime and just talk tough about all of it 'are really tougher on the taxpayer than they are on crime. They're not reducing crime.'"
"The Rockefeller Drug Laws filled prisons, but they didn’t appear to dampen the drug trade. Meanwhile, the combination of large numbers of newly released felons without jobs, in many cases without high school diplomas, and often with an active drug addiction, created what prosecutors in Brooklyn and elsewhere saw as a revolving door of addicts committing crimes to get money for drugs, getting arrested and sent to prison, emerging from prison still wanting drugs, and starting the cycle all over again."
"We can't prison-build our way to a safer society."
"But as we discussed in the last chapter, recent decades reversed the posture of law enforcement, both police and prosecutors, from focusing on preventing crime to reacting to crimes after they occur. The new thinking was: Catch more criminals and lock them up for longer sentences, and the rest will take care of itself. Today, many prosecutors, like myself, have come to believe that this simplistic approach to crime is falling tragically short of the goal of making our streets safer and is emblematic of a system badly in need of reform."
"A 2008 report by America's Promise Alliance, which is chaired by Alma Powell, the wife of former Secretary of State Colin Powell, showed that 17 percent of the nation's fifty largest cities had high school graduation rates lower than 50 percent. In Detroit's public schools, only 25 percent of the students who enrolled in grade nine graduated from high school, while 30.5 percent graduated in Indianapolis public schools and 34 percent received diplomas in the Cleveland Municipal City School District."
"Overall, about 70 percent of U.S. students graduate from public and private schools on time with a regular diploma, and about 1.2 million students drop out annually."
"As Secretary Powell put it: 'When more than 1 million students a year drop out of high school, it's more than a problem, it's a catastrophe.'"
"After I took office and began to focus on truancy, I asked for a study of our murder profiles from 2004 to 2008. It turned out that 94 percent of San Francisco's homicide victims under the age of twenty-five were high school dropouts. The demographics of the murderers are the same."
"Our jails and prisons are packed to overflowing with nonviolent offenders who are there for drug crimes, property crimes, and parole violations related to previous offenses, and they typically are serving relatively short sentences. Nationally, the average is about two years."
"The broadly held assumption that simply increasing the penalty for any crime will automatically deter more people from committing the crime is a myth."
"With strong leadership, we can have attentive policing in poor communities without racial profiling and excessive force. The two are not mutually exclusive."
"'Traditional incarceration does not lend itself to introspection or accountability,' [Sunny Schwartz] notes. 'That offends me as a taxpayer and as a citizen. I think to be held accountable in a smart, effective way, we need programs from sunup to sundown in prison. Every cell should be filled with educational, vocational, therapeutic programs that respond to the deficiencies and anti-social behavior of the inmates.'"
"We have to ask, ultimately is it safer (to the communities to which they eventually will be released)(ital) to simply warehouse them in prisons where gangs have become increasingly strong and let them 'do time' or to develop initiatives in prison that require them to work on anger management, overcome addictions, improve their educational status, and possibly prepare for some kind of job so they can pay their bills."
"Eventually, we need to evolve to the point where re-entry is an established and respected process that involves partnerships among community stakeholders, and we need to think outside our own boxes not only to deal with re-entering prisoners but to better anticipate what the consequences of re-entry and other smart programs will be in our communities."
"Prosecute the violent offender, break the cycles of crime, and support and empower the victim."
"The Fulton County District Attorney's Office initiated an incentive program at three elementary schools in the Atlanta Public School system that were struggling with high absenteeism. The Dwight Howard Foundation, Target, Inc., and AirTran Airways got together and offered a special incentive for perfect attendance: a new bike and a helmet. The three schools gained a 39 percent overall increase in their perfect attendance record for the 2007-2008 school year. Few things in life are more exciting to a young child than a new bike. Linking that prize to the notion that school attendance matters and that it is a priority for the community is not an obvious activity for a district attorney's office to coordinate, but I can almost guarantee that there are crimes that don't(ital) happen and don't have to be prosecuted because many of those children are walking to school dreaming about those bikes instead of ditching class."
"Says Chief Fealy, 'I used to do the typical cop thing when crime went up. I'd say "Well, it's the economy, or there are so many things we can't control." But I worked for Chief Stan Knee in Austin, Texas, before I came here, and one day when I said that he looked at me and said, "B.S., Jim. The crime stats are our report card and we're failing." That began to open up my eyes. My prior viewpoint was all about response; what I now believe is that through focus and attention we can influence crime.'"
January 19, 2020
Harris put forward a lot of very good ideas in this book, but it felt like it lacked direction. Numerous times during the reading of it, I felt strong agreement or introspection; I felt I understood areas where progress could be made and saw chances for redemption in an institution and an industry that is without question immensely flawed. I finished the book, though, wondering "Now what?" I would have liked to have seen key points constructed into a more clear road forward rather than just reading an overview of what was currently being done to improve the justice system.
April 5, 2017
Relevant, highly so, now that she's the California Congresswoman. I knew about and experienced a lot of what was described in the book through her time as my state DA and local DA. I'm a fan--as her focus is decreasing recidivism, building empathy and compassion with victims and perpetrators, and accountability and logical consequences to crime. The book's division into the problems and myths we face, along with "smart" answers really brings her philosophy home and makes the criminal justice system in California, at least, have a basis in pedagogy and discipline and seeks to overcome the traditional "get tough on crime" or "wanted poster" approach used to describe the Western approach which, basically, has put more people in jail than we can justify.
August 2, 2019
A Crime Fighting Road Map Worthy of Copy
This was an innovative approach to handling a common complexity, the management of crime in large difficult and diverse communities. I commend Kamala Harris on her efforts and actual implementation of these programmes as she sought to defeat the crime beast and uplift ailing communities.
This was an innovative approach to handling a common complexity, the management of crime in large difficult and diverse communities. I commend Kamala Harris on her efforts and actual implementation of these programmes as she sought to defeat the crime beast and uplift ailing communities.
Want to read
July 15, 2019"I was that girl" worked with Biden. But she says also the Russians are after her,...I mean in 2020. Maybe because of her bucks.
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/08/ka...
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/08/ka...
May 2, 2010
Simple overview of CJ system, makes some common sense points.
June 8, 2014
It was so interesting. I really like this book. Author was very specific when it comes to details.
August 24, 2014
I like her ideas for the criminal justice system
June 12, 2015
I liked it. I wish more of these kinds of ideas could be implemented. My political views have become a bit jaded of late, but this book gives me at least a little hope.
January 20, 2019
Structure of book meant it was a bit repetitive.
March 23, 2022
Its like reading a book about how to become a trillionaire, except then you find out the author has been homeless for over a decade & ultimately had money once - but it was stolen.
August 7, 2024
I enjoyed learning about Kamala Harris' background. She reminds me of Barack Obama who became interested in politics while living in Indonesia. She visited Jamaica every year, and India every two years during her childhood. Like Obama, she listened to the elders and became interested in a career of service, in effort to try to make positive changes, especially in government.
I liked learning about innovative ideas she helped implement in San Francisco, and what leaders in other cities implemented to make inroads into reducing crime, especially among teens. The stats, however were depressing. I know two men who have lifetime jail sentences. The revolving door; incarnated, released, soon arrested and back in jail. Both of them were involved with drug use. One's crimes escalated to violence.
Kamala showed an understanding of that recidivism, and steps being taken to end that cycle. Her actions to help prevent children from joining gangs, seemed futile to me. It took me a while to read; I guess it is what I would call, dry material. It would likely benefit people in the justice system to read and learn how to be "smart on crime."
"If we are not getting these offenders to stop committing the crimes, we're no being tough on crime."
"Charles 'Joe' Hynes began to remind people: Ultimate goal of law enforcement is not locking people up, but rather increasing public safety."
"...officials who don't differentiate between types of crime and just talk tough, about all of it, are really tougher on taxpayers, than they are on crimes. They're not reducing crime." D.A. Ronnie Earle
"...crime is an issue that should be 100% non parisian." George Pratt Schultz
"We can preserve an individual's right to legally own a gun, while regulating on weapons of war."
Now that VP Harris is candidate for Presidency, I recommend this book to anyone who would like to know more about who she is and what she has done.
I liked learning about innovative ideas she helped implement in San Francisco, and what leaders in other cities implemented to make inroads into reducing crime, especially among teens. The stats, however were depressing. I know two men who have lifetime jail sentences. The revolving door; incarnated, released, soon arrested and back in jail. Both of them were involved with drug use. One's crimes escalated to violence.
Kamala showed an understanding of that recidivism, and steps being taken to end that cycle. Her actions to help prevent children from joining gangs, seemed futile to me. It took me a while to read; I guess it is what I would call, dry material. It would likely benefit people in the justice system to read and learn how to be "smart on crime."
"If we are not getting these offenders to stop committing the crimes, we're no being tough on crime."
"Charles 'Joe' Hynes began to remind people: Ultimate goal of law enforcement is not locking people up, but rather increasing public safety."
"...officials who don't differentiate between types of crime and just talk tough, about all of it, are really tougher on taxpayers, than they are on crimes. They're not reducing crime." D.A. Ronnie Earle
"...crime is an issue that should be 100% non parisian." George Pratt Schultz
"We can preserve an individual's right to legally own a gun, while regulating on weapons of war."
Now that VP Harris is candidate for Presidency, I recommend this book to anyone who would like to know more about who she is and what she has done.
October 14, 2024
Smart on Crime present a fairly convincing case for incorporating community involvement in law enforcement. It also argues strongly for paying more attention to the matter of truancy in order to nip youth crime in the bud. Harris recognizes the damage crime inflicts upon society: "Crime brings chaos, and thus is unacceptable" (p. 45). She even indicates that "seemingly small, nonviolent crimes like graffiti and vandalism have a ripple effect" (p. 45). The book takes a position that is tough on crime: "Any approach to dealing with violent offenders that allows them to bypass accountability for their crimes is neither smart nor tough" (p. 143). Harris also admits that immigration has very close, serious ties to crime in the United States starting with the crime of human trafficking or kidnapping: "There may be in excess of 50,000 people who are brought into this country against their will every year" (p. 166).
Two things trouble me in this volume: (1) The positions on crime that resulted in California during and following her time as prosecutor and District Attorney seem to contradict Harris' "toughness" on crime. (2) Her current campaign to be President also fails to recognize the serious problem of immigrant crimes.
A word on the writing of this book: note that it was not written by Kamala Harris, but by Joan O'C. Hamilton (see p. 236). The volume is so well written and articulate that it stands in stark contrast to the difficulty Harris has today when she has to address issues or answer questions extemporaneously. In real life she is not as articulate as this book — and no wonder, she did not write it.
Despite my negative comments, I recommend the reading of Smart on Crime to anyone desiring a good introduction into contemporary issues in law enforcement and crime fighting. It is well worth reading.
Two things trouble me in this volume: (1) The positions on crime that resulted in California during and following her time as prosecutor and District Attorney seem to contradict Harris' "toughness" on crime. (2) Her current campaign to be President also fails to recognize the serious problem of immigrant crimes.
A word on the writing of this book: note that it was not written by Kamala Harris, but by Joan O'C. Hamilton (see p. 236). The volume is so well written and articulate that it stands in stark contrast to the difficulty Harris has today when she has to address issues or answer questions extemporaneously. In real life she is not as articulate as this book — and no wonder, she did not write it.
Despite my negative comments, I recommend the reading of Smart on Crime to anyone desiring a good introduction into contemporary issues in law enforcement and crime fighting. It is well worth reading.
August 27, 2024
Seeing as Kamala Harris is the new Democratic nominee, I wanted to read some of her ideas moreso than her biography. There is a little bit of biography here- you get a glimpse at her Jamaican/Indian/American/Canadian upbringing. But most of the book centers on her work as District Attorney in San Francisco, and her ideas to not only fight crime, but also build a safer society.
And she calls this initiative "Smart on Crime," and she references it constantly, capitalizing it like a holy term.
I like the majority of her ideas her. Harris' main thesis can be boiled down to "Identifying the root causes of crime and focusing our efforts and spending on those areas will make our communities safer AND decrease our overall spending." The idea of spending a little now to prevent crime saves us a lot of money later to punish it.
One example she gave was child truancy. She gave some massive statistic, 90% of all criminal offenders in SF never graduated High School. Truancy is technically a crime, so she decided to target this area- to notify parents that they could be under arrest if they fail to get their kids to school. When this book was published, it sounds like this program was just starting out. Harris said that so far, the effect has been positive, but it would be interesting to see the long term outcome.
She has some opinions that are a bit asinine. In one section, she explains it's a right to feel safe in your community. Then she also explains that we should do our best to change our habits so as not to tempt thieves, and she gives the example of not leaving your wallet on the dashboard of your car. This is a pretty awful stance - the equivalent of asking a rape victim "well, what were you wearing?"
One other major position that I wonder if she's changed her stance on is the police. In this book she is a strong advocate for the police, and for more of them. She claims it's a myth that minorities feel unsafe around police. There are some good points in her arguments here - every community, regardless of its wealth/status, deserves equal protection by the law. If police completely abandon a neighborhood, those born there never have a chance to escape.
But at the same time, this book was published before the death of George Floyd. Maybe her opinion has changed some, I'm really not sure.
For the most part, I agreed or at least understood her positions in this book. I knocked one star off for some of the off base arguments, like the one mentioned earlier, but those were relatively infrequent. I knocked another star off just because the book is kind of boring. 3/5
And she calls this initiative "Smart on Crime," and she references it constantly, capitalizing it like a holy term.
I like the majority of her ideas her. Harris' main thesis can be boiled down to "Identifying the root causes of crime and focusing our efforts and spending on those areas will make our communities safer AND decrease our overall spending." The idea of spending a little now to prevent crime saves us a lot of money later to punish it.
One example she gave was child truancy. She gave some massive statistic, 90% of all criminal offenders in SF never graduated High School. Truancy is technically a crime, so she decided to target this area- to notify parents that they could be under arrest if they fail to get their kids to school. When this book was published, it sounds like this program was just starting out. Harris said that so far, the effect has been positive, but it would be interesting to see the long term outcome.
She has some opinions that are a bit asinine. In one section, she explains it's a right to feel safe in your community. Then she also explains that we should do our best to change our habits so as not to tempt thieves, and she gives the example of not leaving your wallet on the dashboard of your car. This is a pretty awful stance - the equivalent of asking a rape victim "well, what were you wearing?"
One other major position that I wonder if she's changed her stance on is the police. In this book she is a strong advocate for the police, and for more of them. She claims it's a myth that minorities feel unsafe around police. There are some good points in her arguments here - every community, regardless of its wealth/status, deserves equal protection by the law. If police completely abandon a neighborhood, those born there never have a chance to escape.
But at the same time, this book was published before the death of George Floyd. Maybe her opinion has changed some, I'm really not sure.
For the most part, I agreed or at least understood her positions in this book. I knocked one star off for some of the off base arguments, like the one mentioned earlier, but those were relatively infrequent. I knocked another star off just because the book is kind of boring. 3/5
September 14, 2024
Good by politician standards
Like a lot of books written by politicians, this book is basically written at a third grade level. That’s a little frustrating, given how intelligent Harris is. After a reasonably strong start — which details how Harris was influenced by her social scientists parents — the book suffers from organizational problems, as if the ghost writer was just sort of slapping chapters together. Instead of a problem-solution format in each chapter, the first half of the book is mostly problems and the second half is solutions. But even that conceit isn’t strictly adhered to, table of contents be damned. The final few paragraphs of a chapter won’t have much to do with what preceded it.
All of that said, there are some truly interesting ideas here that would have been better served by a more capable editor and ghost writer.
Like a lot of books written by politicians, this book is basically written at a third grade level. That’s a little frustrating, given how intelligent Harris is. After a reasonably strong start — which details how Harris was influenced by her social scientists parents — the book suffers from organizational problems, as if the ghost writer was just sort of slapping chapters together. Instead of a problem-solution format in each chapter, the first half of the book is mostly problems and the second half is solutions. But even that conceit isn’t strictly adhered to, table of contents be damned. The final few paragraphs of a chapter won’t have much to do with what preceded it.
All of that said, there are some truly interesting ideas here that would have been better served by a more capable editor and ghost writer.
September 17, 2024
3.5 rounded down to 3/5 stars (Goodreads, get half-stars)
Definitely an interesting book, although outdated at this point (it was published in 2009). Many national and global events have occurred that require a lot of these approaches to be adjusted or revamped entirely. That said, Harris elaborates on both myths and solutions. That is definitely one of the things that I’ve noticed. She is exceedingly detail-oriented and does genuinely want to make lives better, although again, her approaches leave something to be desired.
I also want to see her thoughts and strategies on white-collar crime, something glaringly absent in this book.
Definitely an interesting book, although outdated at this point (it was published in 2009). Many national and global events have occurred that require a lot of these approaches to be adjusted or revamped entirely. That said, Harris elaborates on both myths and solutions. That is definitely one of the things that I’ve noticed. She is exceedingly detail-oriented and does genuinely want to make lives better, although again, her approaches leave something to be desired.
I also want to see her thoughts and strategies on white-collar crime, something glaringly absent in this book.
October 20, 2024
insightful
I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about this book going in, but I found it to be quite insightful. I think that a lot of what is in this book about the way we deal with crime was spot on and it made me think about items that I hadn’t really thought about before. This book is from 2008 or 2009 so I’m interested to see how some of these ideas have played out over the past several years. I found the author to be well spoken, intelligent, and she appears to really care about curbing crime as a whole while still treating people with respect.
I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about this book going in, but I found it to be quite insightful. I think that a lot of what is in this book about the way we deal with crime was spot on and it made me think about items that I hadn’t really thought about before. This book is from 2008 or 2009 so I’m interested to see how some of these ideas have played out over the past several years. I found the author to be well spoken, intelligent, and she appears to really care about curbing crime as a whole while still treating people with respect.
August 27, 2020
This was more of an enhanced position paper which articulated Kamala Harris' position on crime, prosecuting offenders, how to prevent recidivism, how to support victims, and alternatives to the revolving door for criminals.
July 24, 2024
This book is hard to rate. I thought it was interesting in learning about Kamala Harris but it is very dry. If Harris did not write it I would not have read it. Clearly a book she put forth to bolster her political campaign.
Read
November 2, 2024Very useful window into how she thinks. May be a mandatory read for anyone writing about her.
Very skimmable. Surprised by just how prominent truancy policy is here, and just how many communities (like labor) she engaged from the jump.
Very skimmable. Surprised by just how prominent truancy policy is here, and just how many communities (like labor) she engaged from the jump.
Read
April 21, 2021DNF. Really wonky—I mean, that’s exactly how it’s billed, but it just wasn’t for me. Progressive for 2009, but by today’s standards it’s not too revolutionary.
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