Former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates pressed states on Wednesday to be leaders on criminal justice reform during the Trump era. 

“We’re all calling on you, our state and local leaders, to be our banner on this [criminal justice reform],” Yates told law enforcement leaders at the National Law Enforcement Summit on Crime in Washington, D.C.

Yates also encouraged law enforcement leaders to “hopefully persuade” President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions on the issue of criminal justice reform. 

{mosads}The former acting attorney general pushed back on the Trump administration’s tough approach to law enforcement, which has included ordering federal prosecutors to “pursue the most serious, readily provable” offenses that by definition carry the most substantial sentences, including mandatory minimums.

“We cannot jail our way into safe communities,” Yates said. 

Yates’ comments come as Sessions testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. 

Sessions was grilled by Democrats on the committee, who sent him a letter last week asking him to answer “fully and truthfully” and urging him not to assert executive privilege on questions.

This is not the first time Yates has pushed back on the Trump administration. 

Yates penned an op-ed in The New York Times last July, accusing Trump of “attempting to dismantle the rule of law, destroy the time-honored independence of the Justice Department, and undermine the career men and women who are devoted to seeking justice day in and day out.”

The former acting attorney general was fired by the White House shortly after Trump took office in January for refusing to have the Justice Department defend Trump’s initial travel ban.