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US Attorney General Pushes Prosecution for Drug Offenses

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WASHINGTON (AP) - Attorney General Jeff Sessions wants to return to some decades-old drug and crime-fighting strategies - even as some involved in criminal justice during that time have come to believe those approaches were not that effective.

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.

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.

Don Rush is the News Director at Delmarva Public Media. An award-winning journalist, Don reports major local issues of the day, from sea level rise, to urban development, to the changing demographics of Delmarva.