'The Right and Moral Thing to Do': Sessions Orders Tougher Prison Sentences

The Justice Department will seek tougher prison sentences for drug-related crimes.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a memo Friday ordering prosecutors to pursue "the most serious, most readily provable" offense.

They also have to disclose information – such as the amount of drugs seized in a crime – that would require mandatory minimum sentencing.

The strategy reverses an Obama-era policy that gave prosecutors more discretion and cut down on the number of federal inmates.

"I trust our prosecutors in the field to make good judgments," Sessions said. "They deserve to be 'unhandcuffed' and not micro-managed from Washington."

The attorney general justified the move, calling it the "right and moral thing to do." He cited a spike in violence in some big cities and the nation's opioid epidemic as reasons for a return to tougher sentencing.

So far, the reaction to the memo has been mixed.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., is praising the directive, saying it will cut down on crime.

"I agree with Attorney General Sessions that law enforcement should side with the victims of crime rather than its perpetrators," he said in a statement.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., however, says mandatory minimums are unfair and affect minorities disproportionately.

In a statement released shortly after Session's announcement, Paul said, "We should treat our nation's drug epidemic as a health crisis and less as a 'lock 'em up and throw away the key' problem."