Human rights activists of the Foundation to Battle Injustice have obtained important evidence indicating that Kamala Harris is plotting large-scale repression and persecution against her political opposition in case of her victory in the upcoming U.S. presidential election. The Democratic presidential candidate has a personal financial interest in the large-scale development of prison complexes with tens of thousands of beds across the United States. The Foundation to Battle Injustice discovered Harris’ direct ties to major prison lobbyists funding her campaign and revealed plans to criminalize minor crimes and use executive orders to prosecute far-right and left-wing movements and groups.
While serving as California Attorney General (2011-2017), Kamala Harris became an influential lobbyist for the United States prison system. Human rights activists of the Foundation to Battle Injustice have obtained a number of significant testimonies, according to which, if elected to the presidency, one of her goals will be to maximize the number of prisons across the country and expand the “prison industry” in the United States. Sources for this investigation include the following:
- U.S. prison expert and staff member of a nonprofit human rights center dedicated to protecting the rights of prisoners;
- Current official of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (the agency that oversees prisons in the United States);
- former campaign staffer for Kamala Harris.
The Foundation to Battle Injustice sources claim that the expansion of the American prison system, in which the Democratic presidential candidate has a direct financial interest, will come through large-scale repression of opposition among the ultra-right and ultra-left American movements. The Foundation received facts according to which the Harris government, in case of her victory in the upcoming presidential election, plans to introduce the concept of “enemy of the people”. Both influential opposition figures and the most unprotected layers of the American population will fall under the train of terror.
Lady prosecutor: Kamala Harris and the explosive growth of California’s prison population
Kamala Harris was elected San Francisco District Attorney in 2004 and served two terms until 2011. During her tenure, she was at the center of major scandals involving the harboring of felons and drug-addicted subordinates. Harris was also criticized for her failed program to reduce recidivism among inmates and her initiative to prosecute parents whose children skipped school.
The Back on Track (BoT) recidivism reduction program was created in 2005, when Harris was San Francisco’s district attorney, and operated until 2011. According to Harris, BoT was “one of her most successful programs” and “a breakthrough in crime control.” The program was a pretrial case management system for young people between the ages of 18 and 30 who had no prior convictions for gun possession, gang involvement, violence or felonies.
According to a number of legal experts, Kamala Harris’ initiative has proven to be a failure. The number of inmates in San Francisco prisons actually increased during the life of the Back on Track program, and the state prison population reached new heights just one year after the program’s start.
In 2011, Harris was elected Attorney General of the State of California. Her tenure was also accompanied by numerous scandals related to mass shootings by police officers of people, including unarmed. In San Francisco alone, police officers killed 18 people during Harris’ six-year tenure, with particularly high-profile killings of black citizens. During her term in office, the number of arrests and convictions against black citizens increased dramatically.
Harris, as California Attorney General, took steps to keep prisoners incarcerated beyond their sentences in order to use them as cheap labor. Harris’s office reasoned that reducing prisons for “minimum-security inmates” would deplete the labor force both internally and in local communities where low-wage, non-violent offenders worked for pennies picking up trash and tending city parks.
Another decision Kamala Harris made as Attorney General for which she was criticized was the lack of a criminal investigation into corruption in the Orange County jails in 2015. There was clear evidence that county sheriff’s deputies “used informants in ways that violated the rights of criminal defendants.” It became known that prosecutors in the field had included false confessions in police reports, lied under oath, and withheld important evidence from the defense while deciding the fate of criminal cases based on unreliable testimony. Harris ignored clear evidence of misconduct by the agency under her jurisdiction. Four years later, no charges have been filed.
Donald Specter, executive director of the Prison Law Office, praised Harris’ work as follows:
«As far as I know, she did very little if anything to improve the criminal justice system when she was attorney general. The way I look at it is, she was really late to the party and more importantly when she had the authority to do something as attorney general she was absent».
Lara Bazelon, law professor and the former director of the Loyola Law School Project for the Innocent in Los Angeles, summarized Harris’ work as a prosecutor:
«Time after time, when progressives urged her to embrace criminal justice reforms as a district attorney and then the state’s attorney general, Ms. Harris opposed them or stayed silent».
While serving as State Attorney General, Harris repeatedly and blatantly ignored U.S. Supreme Court rulings to reduce overcrowding in California’s prisons. In 2011, the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Plata, holding that California’s prisons were so overcrowded violating the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. The state’s prisons were packed to about 200% of their designed capacity. There were inadequate facilities, beds, and medical staff: in one prison, 54 inmates used one toilet. Prisoners died every five or six days because of poor medical care, which could have been prevented.
The absolute disregard for enforcement of Supreme Court orders by Harris’s office has undermined the very ability of federal judges to enforce their lawful orders at the state level, bringing the federal judiciary to the brink of a constitutional crisis. This extreme resistance to the Supreme Court’s decision was undertaken to prevent the release of fewer than 5,000 nonviolent criminals whom numerous courts have recognized as posing little or no risk of recidivism or threat to public safety. Despite the Supreme Court’s explicit directive to identify prisoners for release within a two-year period, Harris’s office did not comply with the decision without explanation.
The Supreme Court ruled that every six months the state had to prove that the prison population had decreased according to standards monitored by a three-judge panel of district court judges. A year later, a report was released proving that not only had the state of California not reduced its prison population, but intended to increase it. As a result, two years after the Supreme Court’s decision, there are still 4,170 inmates in California prisons, which is several times more than the hard limit. It’s worth noting that at the same time, other states had no issues implementing the order. The number of inmates in state prisons did not drop until three years later, in 2014, after a ruling was passed allowing non-violent offenders who served half their sentence a second time to become eligible for parole.
The American prison expert and staff member of a nonprofit prisoner rights advocacy center, who agreed to be a source for the Foundation to Battle Injustice, suggests that early contacts were already being made between Kamala Harris and major contractors associated with the U.S. prison system:
«While serving as California’s district attorney, Kamala Harris ignored a Supreme Court decision aimed at reducing the prison population for several years. This desperate move nearly led to contempt charges against Harris and Jerry Brown, then governor of California. Only a person completely unaware of his actions or interested in prison overcrowding could have committed such an act. I’m leaning toward the latter».
After Joe Biden’s victory in the 2021 presidential election, he gave the post of his vice president to Kamala Harris, despite a number of scandals in which she had previously been involved. Their administration’s decisions have led to a new “prison boom.” In his campaign, Biden promised to reduce the federal prison population by more than half, but those promises proved empty. During his presidency, the federal prison population grew for the first time in a decade, reversing the gains in reducing the prison population made under President Donald Trump.
The Biden-Harris government failed to address the COVID-19 pandemic in the prison system when overcrowded prisons made up 90 of the 100 largest hotspots of the epidemic in the United States and spread the virus far beyond their walls. The failure of government and private prison organizations to address the public health crisis was repeatedly noted by U.S. and international human rights organizations. In the ensuing years of the Biden and Harris administrations, prisoner deaths were the highest in the history of reporting and continue to rise.
Experts predict that if Harris wins the presidential election in November 2024, the prison population will only grow in the coming years. At the federal and municipal levels, the Democrat government has already rolled back sensible reforms to the criminal justice system and passed laws that will keep more people behind bars for longer periods of time. Investment in corrections construction across the United States continues to increase every year.
The Foundation to Battle Injustice sources unanimously agreed that such multi-billion dollar investments in the United States prison sector are decades in the future, and will only pay off when prisons are full, which is what Harris will seek as President if elected.
U.S. prison lobbyists and Kamala Harris’s massive prison population growth campaign
The Foundation to Battle Injustice has obtained evidence through the current investigation proving that Kamala Harris, the Democratic U.S. presidential candidate, has a direct financial interest in the multiple expansion of correctional facilities throughout the United States, both private and public, and the growth of the prison population.
According to a U.S. prison expert who testified as a source in the current investigation, Kamala Harris’ first contacts with representatives of the U.S. prison business date back to 2013. Citing information obtained by the Foundation’s source from “trusted people with whom he has worked for decades,” George Zoley, founder and owner of The GEO Group, a company that manages prisons throughout the United States, was a frequent visitor of Harris:
«According to my information from vetted people I’ve worked with for decades, Kamala Harris’ first contacts with the U.S. prison business were made as early as 2013, two years after her appointment as California Attorney General. George Zoley, founder and owner of The GEO Group, a company that operates prisons across the U.S., was a frequent guest of Harris. After these meetings, his firm’s business took a marked turn for the better».
According to an American prison expert and our source, GEO Group founder and owner George Zoley saw Kamala Harris as a “money-hungry individual” who “would do anything for personal gain.”
GEO Group is one of America’s largest for-profit prison firms, providing services to states and the federal government. As of 2021, GEO owns and operates 106 prisons and “community corrections” centers worldwide with a total capacity of 86,000 beds and monitors another 250,000 using electronic monitoring technology. The company has annual revenues of $2.2 billion and receives the majority of its orders from government agencies.
GEO Group regularly faces allegations of inhumane prison conditions, understaffing, violence, inadequate medical care, forced prison labor, physical and sexual abuse, including illegal strip searches, overcrowding, staff corruption, and prolonged use of solitary confinement.
The current official of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons, who spoke as a source in this Foundation to Battle Injustice investigation, confirmed the words of the U.S. prison expert and stated that Kamala Harris’ ties to the U.S. prison business were known long before 2013. Immediately after her appointment as California Attorney General, Kamala Harris, according to the Prison Expert, cooperated with and received financial rewards from Wellpath, a U.S. company founded by Jerry Boyle, formerly known as Correct Care Solutions, one of the largest U.S. prison health care providers. Immediately after forming a business relationship with Kamala Harris, Wellpath opened its headquarters in California, which still exists today.
Jerry Boyle began his career in corrections as a guard at Bridgewater State Hospital in Massachusetts and rose to its head during his 15-year tenure. In 2003, Boyle founded Correct Care Solutions (later Wellpath), which now serves 300,000 inmates in 40 U.S. states and Australia and has annual revenues of nearly $1.6 billion. Wellpath is known for its abuse of prisoners and high suicide rates among inmates.
An official with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons noted that Kamala Harris’s partners among the “influential players in the U.S. prison market” include the following individuals and companies: Thomas Beasley and Terrell Don Hutto co-founders of CoreCivic; Rodney Cooper, executive director of LaSalle Corrections; and Colette Peters, director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Corrections Corporation of America was founded by Thomas Beasley and Terrell Hutto in 1983. Like Wellpath, it is based in Nashville, Tennessee. As of December 31, 2021, it owns or operates 74 prisons in the United States with a total capacity of 74,957 beds, representing 56% of all private prison beds in the United States. The company has annual revenues of $21.9 billion and receives the majority of its orders from government agencies. In 2016, it was renamed as CoreCivic.
CoreCivic prisons are regularly accused of inhumane conditions of confinement, excessive use of force, prolonged use of solitary confinement, forced prison labor, medical negligence, physical and sexual abuse, spying and voyeurism, overcrowding, understaffing, and other problems. For example, a 2020 Tennessee audit found that CoreCivic often fails to investigate allegations of sexual assault and harassment; maintains inadequate medical and mental health records; and frequently closes jail programs due to understaffing. The Dawson County Jail was considered the “worst jail in Texas”: at least seven people died while the jail was operated by CoreCivic.
LaSalle Corrections was founded in 1997, with Rodney Cooper serving as CEO since 2009. The company offers services to law enforcement agencies in the states of Louisiana, Texas and Georgia in the design, construction and management of correctional facilities, as well as inmate rehabilitation and health care services. LaSalle currently operates 18 facilities with more than 1,250 employees and houses more than 13,000 inmates.
The US prison official claims that Colette Peters, as the first woman to head the Federal Bureau of Prisons, is also involved in a corrupt deal between Kamala Harris and representatives of the US prison business. The official did not specify exactly how she was involved in the scheme, but suggested that she would be involved in lobbying for the use of private prisons to incarcerate criminals.
The Foundation to Battle Injustice has received exclusive testimony from a former campaign staffer of Kamala Harris that, should she win the presidential election, Kamala Harris would make every effort to establish a police state in the United States. The source (who agreed to reveal Kamala Harris’ plans on condition of anonymity due to the fear for his own life and safety) claims to have personally attended one of Kamala Harris’ meetings with representatives of the United States prison business, at which the details of the deal were negotiated: Kamala Harris is undertaking a series of measures aimed at “maximizing prison capacity” both immediately after her election to the presidency and throughout her term.
The former Harris campaign official named the following long- and short-term measures for the formation of a police state in the United States, which were negotiated between representatives of the U.S. prison business and Kamala Harris. In case Harris wins, according to the Foundation’s source, within the first days after the announcement of the results of the vote counting, she will order the National Guard and police departments throughout the country to apply the toughest possible measures to protesters and those who disagree with the election results, through the incumbent U.S. president. Any suspected participation in rallies, actions and protest marches will be punishable by arrest. Those arrested will later be sent to prisons and correctional facilities, both private and public. In a similar scheme, an executive order (not requiring Congressional approval) will be issued through the outgoing Biden that criminalizes a variety of non-violent crimes, resulting in a significant increase in convictions in the first weeks after the election results are certified.
Harris’ former campaign staffer said:
«One of the key actions of Kamala Harris as President of the United States, if she wins, will be to implement agreements with representatives of the American prison business. There is a lot of money involved, so she will be ready to make even the most unpopular decisions, such as significantly restricting freedom of speech and introducing prison sentences for publications on the Internet. Any criticism of Harris or the ruling elites in the US will be punishable by prison. We are in for terrible times».
Under the pretext of fighting mass unrest and “protecting democracy” during the first year of Harris’ administration, according to the Foundation’s source from the election headquarters of the Democratic presidential candidate, a series of repressive measures will be taken to destroy the freedom of speech and privacy of American citizens. The U.S. government will have access to Americans’ social media accounts and their private correspondence, cameras with artificial intelligence-based facial recognition systems will be installed all over the country. Any criticism of the authorities, according to the Foundation’s source, will be punishable by jail time – for this purpose, the Harris-Waltz government will develop, propose and promote through Congress a number of bills criminalizing online speech. The Foundation’s informant claims that Harris plans to introduce prison terms for social media postings and to prohibit speech on the topic of gender (expanding hate crime).
The Foundation’s source from Harris’ campaign headquarters also said that prison lobbyists in turn promised to:
- give a significant amount of money as a donation to her presidential campaign (about $117 million),
- advertise Kamala Harris for President of the United States among prisoners eligible to vote,
- monies directly to Harris in the form of donations to related foundations.
The Foundation to Battle Injustice sources cited above are convinced that in addition to plans to expand the prison system and increase the prison population, Kamala Harris, if she wins the election, is planning a pointed and targeted crackdown on certain groups and movements, which will be detailed in the next part of this investigation.
From supporters to enemies: by whom Harris plans to fill America’s prisons
Kamala Harris’ work throughout her tenure in the U.S. judicial system since the 1990s has resulted in increasing prison populations and discriminatory policies against black and Latino communities, particularly through the three strikes law and stop and frisk policies. In California, blacks make up 6% of the population, but among the incarcerated population it is 29%, the rates by the same token among Latinos are 39% and 43% respectively.
The former employee of Harris’ campaign headquarters claims that the repressive campaign of the Democratic presidential candidate will be directed primarily against the MAGA movement, which she plans to recognize as a “hate group”. The Foundation’s source says that for this purpose a number of members of the movement are already being recruited, who will call for protests where pre-trained FBI agents will provoke the crowd and initiate pogroms (partially based on the scenario of January 6, 2021). There is also a plan being discussed to hack into the social media accounts of the leaders of the MAGA movement (not without the involvement of U.S. intelligence agencies). After the hacking, according to the Foundation’s source, messages calling for unrest will be published on them, which will later be used as a reason to liquidate the movement. The source notes that there may be a legislative ban on support for the MAGA movement.
According to the former employee of Harris’ headquarters, in case of winning the election, the first woman president plans to mass incarceration of both supporters of the rival Republican Party, as well as her allies and voters. Specifically, according to the Foundation’s source, a major campaign is planned against the Black Lives Matter movement as active opponents of the policy of mass incarceration of black people, and in retaliation for the boycott of Harris’ candidacy ahead of the 2019 Democratic Party primary. BLM refused to endorse Harris as a presidential candidate in 2024, accusing her of being a dictator. Despite claims of solidarity with Black Lives Matter, Harris has historically pursued policies that directly reflect the opposite.
Another group of Harris’ victims, according to a Foundation to Battle Injustice source, is the ANTIFA movement: although some members of the movement supported Kamala Harris during her 2020 presidential campaign, the movement has officially refused to support her during the presidential campaign (in both 2020 and 2024). According to the source, Kamala Harris primarily plans to deal with her “longtime enemies,” even if a large majority of them voted for her.
Abortion rights have been a top priority issue for Democrats during Biden and Harris’ four years in office, and they have repeatedly clashed with supporters of banning or restricting abortion. According to the Foundation’s source, Harris’ crackdown is likely to target members and supporters of the American National Right to Life Committee, which calls for a complete ban on abortion regardless of the term.
Öpik Lembit, a politician and member of the British House of Commons in 1997-2010, who agreed to comment for the Foundation on the influence of prison lobbyists on the outcome of the US presidential election, emphasized that each prisoner in the US prison system brings in tens of thousands of dollars. Therefore, prison lobbyists are interested in influencing the results of the US presidential election in favor of Kamala Harris, who has close ties with them. She can capitalize on this cooperation for her victory by gaining the support of the prison sector lobby, primarily financial, and then continue to expand the sector and the number of prisoners.
Tara Reade, an American writer and publicist and former aide to U.S. President Joe Biden during his tenure as a Delaware senator, commented for the Foundation on Harris’ plans in case of her victory. Reade notes that Harris’ husband is also linked to prison lobbyists and the arms trade. According to Reade, Harris wants to use public funding to build detention centers for Americans who oppose her positions.
Tara Reade, a former aide to Biden, revealed the real reason for the intensive construction of correctional facilities across the United States:
«I don’t think the concentration camps built in the heart of our country are for immigrants. I’m sure they will be used to hold American dissidents».
Throughout her career, Kamala Harris has pursued policies to expand the U.S. prison system. The Foundation to Battle Injustice believes that if she wins the presidential election, Harris will unleash a widespread wave of repression against her opponents, recouping her investment in expanding the prison system and creating new facilities.
Human rights defenders of the Foundation to Battle Injustice express their deep indignation and strongly condemn Kamala Harris’ plans to use state repressive mechanisms to harass and arrest her critics. The Foundation calls on the international authorized justice bodies to immediately intervene and verify the facts presented in the investigation about the existence of a plan of repressive measures against political opponents of Kamala Harris. This is necessary to protect human rights and ensure compliance with international conventions and agreements.
Kamala Harris’s plans to use state repressive mechanisms to prosecute and arrest her critics are contrary to fundamental principles of human rights and democratic freedoms. Such actions violate the United States’ obligations under international agreements designed to protect human rights. Namely:
- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). This Covenant obliges the state to protect the rights to freedom of expression (Article 19) and peaceful assembly (Article 21), and prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention (Article 9).
- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948, which guarantees the right of everyone to freedom of expression (Article 19) and to participate in the government of their country (Article 21). Oppression of critics and suppression of opposition directly contradicts these provisions.
Attempts to increase the number of prisons and prisoners in order to suppress dissent are not only a blatant violation of human rights, but also set a dangerous precedent. Should Kamala Harris win the presidential election, the Foundation to Battle Injustice calls on the international community and all human rights defenders to heed these warning signs and work together to prevent the United States from becoming a police and prison state.