Attorney General Jeff Sessions has vowed to crack down on crime by sending more criminals to prison for longer periods of time.
"Every one of our citizens, no matter who they are or where they live, has the right to be safe in their homes and communities from the scourge of criminal gangs, rapists, carjackers and drug dealers," Sessions said in an address to law enforcement officials in Memphis, Tenn., last month.
In his view, imprisoning more criminals would make families safer, and fewer people would break the law if there were more severe punishments for crimes such as drug offenses.
In a recent memo to federal prosecutors, Sessions instructed them to pursue the harshest punishments legally allowed, a reversal of an Obama-era move giving federal lawyers more leeway to reserve such prosecutions for repeat offenders and people who had committed the worst of crimes.
Department of Justice officials hope the changes at the federal level _ where a sliver of crimes across the country is prosecuted _ will trickle down to a similar approach to crime in states.
But civil rights groups have contested the approach, many legislators have said it goes against trends in criminal justice reform, and dozens of state prosecutors and judges have protested the attorney general's move.
Sessions, meanwhile, contends that his critics are misrepresenting his efforts. "We are not talking about low-level offenders or recreational drug users here," he said in Memphis.
Here are some of the challenges Sessions faces:
