[1] Children's Defense Fund president Marian Wright Edelman praised the book saying:Harris speaks from experience to debunk myths and offer real solutions to many of the problems with [our] current criminal justice system.

[3]Some critics have observed that Harris did not pay enough attention to race, instead attributing the problem of disparities in the system to class,[2] and mentioning racial profiling from law enforcement only twice.

[2]In response, Harris has stated that she is aware of the racial biases in criminal justice and policing, citing her decision to become a prosecutor as an extension of the work her parents did during the civil rights movement.

[2] Those same critics have also noted that since being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2016, Harris has become more assertive on issues such as prison reform, racial equality, and scrutinizing police practices.

Citing an analysis from plagiarism expert Jonathan Bailey, The New York Times wrote that "The five passages that Mr. Rufo cited appeared to have been taken partly from other published work without quotation marks" and concluded that "none of the passages in question took the ideas or thoughts of another writer, which is considered the most serious form of plagiarism.