Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday praised the United States' "remarkable" criminal justice system.

In a brief morning speech at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, Sessions described the system as a "remarkable" one that "stands upon three pillars."

Those three pillars, Sessions said are "our police and our investigators," the court system and the "correctional system."

The correctional system, he said, is "just as crucial but too often overlooked."

"It serves justice by insuring that our nation disciplines and incapacitates criminals for their wrongdoing," Sessions said, adding that the system is "critical to public safety."

Sessions, who in addition to being a senator also once served as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Alabama and the attorney general of Alabama, added that he has "helped send quite a number of people to the federal penitentiary."

"If we had a better system, I would be glad to adopt it," he said. "[W]e know that certain people just have to be incarcerated."

He added: "So I think it's a good and decent and moral thing that we're doing. We're protecting the American people. We're executing the rule of law."

The rate of incarceration in the U.S. is often criticized. According to the non-profit The Sentencing Project, the 2015 U.S. incarceration rate of 670 people per 100,000 population is the highest in the world.

Sessions, as the nation's highest law enforcement officer, has committed the Justice Department to bolstering public safety and putting more criminals behind bars.