"They just do, the facts prove that's so", he declared during a ceremony at the Justice Department where he was honored by the Sergeants Benevolent Association of New York City, arguing prosecutors "deserve to be un-handcuffed and not micromanaged from Washington".
"It is a core principle that prosecutors should charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offense", Sessions wrote in a memorandum dated Wednesday to U.S. Attorneys.
Holder had asked prosecutors to avoid slapping nonviolent drug offenders with crimes that carried mandatory minimum sentences, practices that, as NPR's Tamara Keith explains, "give judges and prosecutors little discretion over the length of a prison term if a suspect is convicted".
"The policy is not tough on crime". It is dumb on crime. This policy affirms our responsibility to enforce the law, is moral and just, and produces consistency.
The new guidance from Attorney General Sessions would rescind the Holder-era "Smart on Crime" that prioritized harshly prosecuting violent crime over non-violent drug offenses. Prior to this memo, prosecutors did not have to get supervisory approval to recommend a sentence outside the guidelines.
Mr Obama had sought to ease mandatory minimum sentences to reduce jail time for low-level drug crimes and help relieve overcrowded prisons in the USA as part of criminal justice reform.
"Reversing (Holder's) directive will exacerbate prison overcrowding, increase spending and jeopardize the safety of staff and prisoners", said Marc Mauer, who leads The Sentencing Project, a national criminal justice research and advocacy group. "In that case, prosecutors should carefully consider whether an exception may be justified". As a senator, he was instrumental previous year in blocking Senate action on a bill - supported by House Speaker Paul Ryan and the Republican chairs of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, among many others - giving federal judges more discretion in imposing sentences for drug offenses.
The move swiftly drew outrage from progressives.
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Republican Sen. Michael J. Hough, of Frederick County, said he hadn't read Sessions' order but probably would disagree with him on the use of mandatory minimums.
Attorney-General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III as good as ordered his underlings to sometimes be unethical. "We intend to reverse this trend".
"The Trump administration is returning to archaic and deeply-flawed policies", said Inimai Chettiar, the director of the Brennan Center's Justice Program. The United States contains five percent of the world's population, but 25 percent of its prisoners, with roughly 2.2 million people now incarcerated in local jails or state/federal prisons, and we spend over $80 billion on incarceration each year.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler said in an interview Friday that President Donald Trump's dismissal of FBI Director James Comey and subsequent tweet that Comey "better hope" their conversations weren't taped add up to a "strong case".
The American Civil Liberties Union said Sessions' move would return the government to failed policies and could prompt long mandatory minimum sentences.
The drastic shift in criminal justice policy, foreshadowed during recent weeks, is Sessions' first major stamp on the Justice Department, and it highlights several of his top targets: drug dealing, gun crime, and gang violence. And now, after a brief experiment with an alternative approach, Sessions is ensuring that the strategy for fighting the war on drugs will remain unchanged.
"That "war" treated drugs, addiction, and substance abuse as a crime instead of as a public health issue", Harris told CNN.
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