To Some, Aggressive Justice Dept Stance Looks Like Step Back

Attorney General Jeff Sessions favors decades-old drug and crime-fighting strategies – even as some involved in criminal justice during that time have come to believe those approaches went too far, and for too long.

Sessions was a federal prosecutor in Mobile, Alabama, at the height of the drug war. He supports mandatory minimum sentences, vigorous gun prosecutions and aggressive policing. He says a spike in violence in some cities shows a need to return to that tough-on-crime approach.

David Baugh – a defense lawyer in Richmond, Virginia, who used to be a prosecutor – says some of those tactics have been tried – and failed.

But a Justice Department spokesman says criminal justice has advanced over the years, and Sessions doesn’t plan to throw out lessons learned from past administrations.

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