"The move is a reversal of ex-President Barack Obama's policy to reduce jail time for low-level drug crimes.
It means we are going to meet our responsibility to enforce the law with judgment and fairness," Mr Sessions said on Friday. "It is simply the right and moral thing to do."
Mr Sessions' predecessor, Eric Holder, had instructed prosecutors in 2013 to avoid pursuing the maximum punishment for criminals in cases such as minor drug offences, which would have triggered mandatory minimum sentencing.
The 2013 policy also encouraged prosecutors to omit details about drug quantities in cases of non-violent offenders with no previous charges or ties to gangs or cartels to avoid harsher punishments.
Mandatory minimum sentences laws, which were passed in the 1980s and 1990s as part of the US "war on drugs", prevent judges from applying discretion when sentencing certain drug offences and are instead determined by the quantity of drugs involved in the crime.
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 US as part of criminal justice reform."
US law boss Sessions orders harsher criminal sentencing - BBC News
"The United States has less than 5 percent of the world's population. But it has almost a quarter of the world's prisoners.
Americans are locked up for crimes — from writing bad checks to using drugs — that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. And in particular they are kept incarcerated far longer than prisoners in other nations.
Criminologists and legal scholars in other industrialized nations say they are mystified and appalled by the number and length of American prison sentences.
The United States has, for instance, 2.3 million criminals behind bars,
China, which is four times more populous than the United States, is a distant second, with 1.6 million people in prison
If you count only adults, one in 100 Americans is locked up
The only other major industrialized nation that even comes close is Russia, with 627 prisoners for every 100,000 people.
The others have much lower rates. England's rate is 151; Germany's is 88; and Japan's is 63.
(The median among all nations is about 125, roughly a sixth of the American rate)
Criminologists and legal experts here and abroad point to a tangle of factors to explain America's extraordinary incarceration rate: higher levels of violent crime, harsher sentencing laws, a legacy of racial turmoil, a special fervor in combating illegal drugs, the American temperament, and the lack of a social safety net. Even democracy plays a role, as judges — many of whom are elected, another American anomaly — yield to populist demands for tough justice.
Whatever the reason, the gap between American justice and that of the rest of the world is enormous and growing.
The spike in American incarceration rates is quite recent. From 1925 to 1975, the rate remained stable, around 110 people in prison per 100,000 people. It shot up with the movement to get tough on crime in the late 1970s.
People who commit nonviolent crimes in the rest of the world are less likely to receive prison time and certainly less likely to receive long sentences. The United States is, for instance, the only advanced country that incarcerates people for minor property crimes like passing bad checks, Whitman wrote.
In 1980, there were about 40,000 people in American jails and prisons for drug crimes. These days, there are almost 500,000.
"The U.S. pursues the war on drugs with an ignorant fanaticism," said Stern of King's College.
Still, it is the length of sentences that truly distinguishes American prison policy.
Burglars in the United States serve an average of 16 months in prison, according to Mauer, compared with 5 months in Canada and 7 months in England."
U.S. prison population dwarfs that of other nations
It means we are going to meet our responsibility to enforce the law with judgment and fairness," Mr Sessions said on Friday. "It is simply the right and moral thing to do."
Mr Sessions' predecessor, Eric Holder, had instructed prosecutors in 2013 to avoid pursuing the maximum punishment for criminals in cases such as minor drug offences, which would have triggered mandatory minimum sentencing.
The 2013 policy also encouraged prosecutors to omit details about drug quantities in cases of non-violent offenders with no previous charges or ties to gangs or cartels to avoid harsher punishments.
Mandatory minimum sentences laws, which were passed in the 1980s and 1990s as part of the US "war on drugs", prevent judges from applying discretion when sentencing certain drug offences and are instead determined by the quantity of drugs involved in the crime.
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 US as part of criminal justice reform."
US law boss Sessions orders harsher criminal sentencing - BBC News
"The United States has less than 5 percent of the world's population. But it has almost a quarter of the world's prisoners.
Americans are locked up for crimes — from writing bad checks to using drugs — that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. And in particular they are kept incarcerated far longer than prisoners in other nations.
Criminologists and legal scholars in other industrialized nations say they are mystified and appalled by the number and length of American prison sentences.
The United States has, for instance, 2.3 million criminals behind bars,
China, which is four times more populous than the United States, is a distant second, with 1.6 million people in prison
If you count only adults, one in 100 Americans is locked up
The only other major industrialized nation that even comes close is Russia, with 627 prisoners for every 100,000 people.
The others have much lower rates. England's rate is 151; Germany's is 88; and Japan's is 63.
(The median among all nations is about 125, roughly a sixth of the American rate)
Criminologists and legal experts here and abroad point to a tangle of factors to explain America's extraordinary incarceration rate: higher levels of violent crime, harsher sentencing laws, a legacy of racial turmoil, a special fervor in combating illegal drugs, the American temperament, and the lack of a social safety net. Even democracy plays a role, as judges — many of whom are elected, another American anomaly — yield to populist demands for tough justice.
Whatever the reason, the gap between American justice and that of the rest of the world is enormous and growing.
The spike in American incarceration rates is quite recent. From 1925 to 1975, the rate remained stable, around 110 people in prison per 100,000 people. It shot up with the movement to get tough on crime in the late 1970s.
People who commit nonviolent crimes in the rest of the world are less likely to receive prison time and certainly less likely to receive long sentences. The United States is, for instance, the only advanced country that incarcerates people for minor property crimes like passing bad checks, Whitman wrote.
In 1980, there were about 40,000 people in American jails and prisons for drug crimes. These days, there are almost 500,000.
"The U.S. pursues the war on drugs with an ignorant fanaticism," said Stern of King's College.
Still, it is the length of sentences that truly distinguishes American prison policy.
Burglars in the United States serve an average of 16 months in prison, according to Mauer, compared with 5 months in Canada and 7 months in England."
U.S. prison population dwarfs that of other nations
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