Washington ? Federal prosecutors were ordered Monday by Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft to pursue maximum criminal charges and sentences whenever possible and to seek lesser penalties through plea bargains only in limited circumstances.

An Ashcroft memo sent to all 94 U.S. attorneys’ offices supersedes policy during former Atty. Gen. Janet Reno’s tenure that allowed prosecutors greater individual discretion to determine if the charges and potential punishment fit the crime.

Ashcroft said his intent was to bring greater consistency to criminal prosecutions throughout the country.

“It’s a direction for the way we prosecute criminal behavior at the federal level,” Ashcroft said Monday after a speech in Cincinnati. “If you violate a federal law, punishment will be uniform.”

The policy change is the latest example of Ashcroft’s attempts to bring greater symmetry — critics say inflexibility — to the federal justice system. During the summer Ashcroft instructed U.S. attorneys to seek the death penalty whenever applicable, overruling some who would not, and to vigorously oppose sentences imposed by judges that are lighter than recommended by federal guidelines.

Critics predicted the new plea bargain policy will severely limit prosecutors’ options, forcing more defendants to face costly, time-consuming trials instead of pleading guilty and adding to prison overcrowding problems through harsher sentences.

“No two crimes, and no two defendants, are exactly alike,” said Marc Mauer, assistant director of The Sentencing Project, a research group that advocates alternatives to prison.

Gerald Lefcourt, past president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said the change “creates a system that is not only inflexible and problematic, but becomes a sort of immovable object. You’re adding more unfairness to the system.”

Nearly all federal criminal cases are resolved before they go to trial. According to Justice Department statistics for fiscal 2001, more than 96 percent of criminal defendants pleaded guilty to the offense charged or to a reduced charge, or had their cases dismissed.

The order by Ashcroft marks a return to the spirit of the original instructions for prosecuting cases under federal sentencing guidelines developed in 1989 by then-Atty. Gen. Richard Thornburgh. Those instructions were rewritten by Reno in the 1990s.

Justice Department officials said the policy, developed by a 15-member advisory group of U.S. attorneys, provides enough flexibility to deal with differences in defendants and still ensure that all prosecutors pursue the same brand of justice.

“The whole purpose is to eliminate the disparity between similarly situated defendants,” said U.S. Atty. Bill Mercer of Montana. “It’s very hard to deter crime if there’s a perception that a person isn’t going to be held accountable for his or her actions.”

The Ashcroft memo said prosecutors would have a “general duty” to pursue the most serious crimes they feel confident of proving in court. Plea bargains involving lesser charges should be limited — there are six specific exceptions — and would frequently have to be approved in writing by a supervisor.

The plea-bargain exceptions are:

• When a defendant agrees to provide “substantial assistance” in an investigation. Ashcroft said the message is, “if defendants will cooperate, the green light is on for negotiation.”
• Under so-called “fast-track” programs aimed at unclogging court dockets in which certain types of defendants are given a preset charge and sentence lower than that called for under federal guidelines. These programs, which will be reviewed individually by the Justice Department, are popular for common immigration and drug violations in the Southwest.
• When prosecutors decided that the original charges will be tough to prove in court because of witness access problems, suppressed evidence or some other reason.
• If the possible sentence would be unaffected by a charge under a lesser offense.
• When “enhancements” that could result in a longer sentence, such as a defendant facing multiple charges connected with the main crime, remove any incentive for the defendant to plead guilty. Enhancements for firearms offenses, however, would generally have to be included.
• On a case-by-case basis for other reasons with written approval by a supervisor.