Ouch! The LA Times Does a Number on AG Wannabe Kamala Harris' Back On Track Program

District Attorney Kamala Harris’ press team must be cringing. In an article published in today’s Los Angeles Times, reporter Michael Finnegan puts Harris’ pet program, Back on Track, through the wringer, determining that it has given illegal immigrant drug dealers a chance at job training and a clean record. Harris, who is running for state attorney general, has held Back on Track up as a smart alternative to traditional criminal justice.

Finnegan opens the LAT article with this example:

A stranger, later identified as Alexander Izaguirre, snatched [Amanda Kiefer’s] purse and hopped into an SUV, police say. The driver sped forward to run Kiefer down. Terrified, she leaped onto the hood and saw Izaguirre and the driver laughing. The driver slammed on the brakes, propelling Kiefer to the pavement. Her skull fractured. Blood oozed from her ear.

Only after the July 2008 attack did Kiefer learn of the crime's political ramifications. Izaguirre, police told her, was an illegal immigrant who had pleaded guilty four months earlier to a drug felony for selling cocaine in the seedy Tenderloin area.

He had avoided prison when he was picked for a jobs program run by San Francisco Dist. Atty. Kamala Harris ...

Read the jump and ponder as we do: What's the "right" response on immigration questions for a statewide prosecutor-hopeful, anyway? It's tricky ...

Finnegan explores what is, in retrospect, an obvious question, given the ongoing controversy over San Francisco’s sanctuary policies: If Harris’ Back on Track is meant to rehabilitate “low-levelâ€