After President Trump's surprise firing of FBI Director James Comey, the flurry of comparisons to President Nixon started to fly. But the comparison could just as easily have been made to Trump's intentions toward criminal justice.

Trump campaigned on law and order, stating that under his watch "safety would be restored." He was echoing the campaign promises made by Nixon during his 1968 run, where he announced, "We are to restore order and respect for law in this country."

The Nixon administration was decisive, setting the trend for the enactment of a series of law-and-order regulations. Now, it appears the Trump administration is following suit. Last week, Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered stricter federal criminal sentencing guidance. Prosecutors should "charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offense," he wrote, a move that will increase incarceration rates.

The United States has 2.2 million people in prisons and jails — a 500% increase over the past four decades. It has dubiously earned America the most-incarcerated-country-in-the-world award. However, between 2010 and 2015, the national imprisonment rate actually declined 8.4%. For the first time in 40 years, the number of prisoners started to decrease instead of increasing yearly. Notably, the nation's crime rate remained at a 20-year low. Criminal justice finally appeared to be going in the right direction.

Then Trump took office.

Trump says one thing, proposes another

In February, barely a month into his administration, the Department of Justice made the most pronounced change. It decided to reinstate the use of private prisons for federal incarceration, rescinding a key order made by the Obama administration just months earlier to "phase out" their use. In the memo, Sessions said private prisons were necessary "to meet the future needs of the federal correctional system." In other words, the law-and-order mantra of Trump's campaign was about to be realized — incarceration rates are about to ramp up.

But after the fact, the administration released its 2018 budget, indicating an overall reduction in correctional spending. With an announced decrease in Department of Justice spending to the tune of $1.1 billion, his proposed budget actually forecasted a move toward less incarceration — affecting the Crime Victims Fund and the Asset Forfeiture Fund, both designed to reimburse state prisons and county jails for incarcerating undocumented immigrants. Furthering that notion, other crucial funds contributing to mass incarceration were also on the chopping block.

So which is it: a galvanizing of Nixon-sparked mass incarceration or continuing the Obama trend of chipping away at it?