(CNN)Evans Ray nearly spent his life in prison for his role in a drug deal he wanted no part of.
Ray, a barber with a wife and four children, received a life sentence from a judge who initially tried to sentence him to 27 years for arranging a drug sale in 2007 but was ultimately forced to give him the maximum sentence: life behind bars.
It was federal prosecutors who forced Ray, who ultimately had his sentence commuted in 2016, to face a life sentence. It is these same federal prosecutors who, under orders from their boss, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, must now pursue the toughest possible charges and sentences against crime suspects.
Mr. Sessions recently announced the seismic shift in criminal justice policy, and now puts himself, the Justice Department and the Trump administration in direct opposition to what so many Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, and red states and blue states, have been clamoring for, and acting on: criminal justice reform that preserves families, saves money and protects communities. MORE
