As the former police chief in two major American cities, New Orleans and Nashville, head of a state police agency and now a professor of criminology, I know that Sen. Tom Cotton is misguided about sentencing reform (“Reform the Prisons Without Going Soft on Crime,” op-ed, Aug. 16).

Current federal criminal justice policies don’t effectively stop the cycle of crime: they get in the way of smart, effective law enforcement and put people in prison who don’t belong there. Too often, ineffective and outdated federal mandatory minimum...