The report, Federal Prisons at a Crossroads, was issued earlier this month. 

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, however, asserts the new federal sentencing guidelines crafted during his tenure were carefully drawn up and will, in fact, improve public safety and help create a more equitable justice system.    

"This policy was formulated after extensive consultation with Assistant U.S. Attorneys at both the trial and appellate level, as well as U.S. Attorneys and Main Justice Attorneys," according to information provided by Sessions' office. "It ensures that the Department enforces the law fairly and consistently, advances public safety and promotes respect for our legal system."  

Sessions said in a memorandum enumerating his policies that prosecutors should abide by mandatory minimum sentences in a majority of cases, with only sparse exception.  

"First, it is a core principle that prosecutors should charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offense," wrote Sessions. "By definition, the most serious offenses are those that carry the most substantial guidelines sentence, including mandatory minimum sentences." He added in instances where "good judgement" would lead a prosecutor to seek an exception, prosecutors must "carefully consider" if that exception is justified.

"The [new directives] place great confidence in our prosecutors and supervisors to apply them in a thoughtful and disciplined manner, with the goal of achieving just and consistent results in federal cases," according to the memo. "Any inconsistent previous policy of the Department of Justice relating to these matters is rescinded, effective today."  

Sessions’ memo was issued on May 10. The Sentencing Project, though, expressed concerns the Department of Justice's budget proposal for 2018 projects a 2% jump in the federal prison population.    While the federal prison population peaked in 2013, it has steadily declined, falling 13% by the end of last year, according to information provided by the group. A decline, they say, is twice the national rate of individual states.  

"But recent policy changes by Attorney General Jeff Sessions and certain Congressional proposals appear poised to reverse this progress," according to the Sentencing Project analysis. The group argues bolstering punitive policies would have an array of negative consequences, particularly for those arrested on drug charges.  

"As criminologists and many policymakers have cautioned, ratcheting up already punitive policies is ineffective in reducing drug use and crime rates, while carrying heavy fiscal, social, and human costs," according the advocacy group.  

The group said stiff, mandatory penalties are often imposed for those in the "lower levels of the drug trade" and many of the defendants that were caught did not possess a weapon or have criminal histories.   

The average federal prison term for a drug offense is a little more than 11 years. No weapon was involved in 82% of instances where a federal drug sentence was handed out in 2016, the group reports.  

"Although crime rates remain near 40-year lows, areas with rising crime and substance abuse problems require more effective policies than tougher sentences that have limited effect while causing great harm," according to information from the Sentencing Project.