After years of being criticized for being too lenient to Wall Street criminals, the Justice Department issued a new policy on Wednesday that takes a tough stance against white collar crime.

The new rules were issued in a memo to federal prosecutors in response to the mounting criticism against the Justice Department for punishing only a few of the executives involved in the housing crisis, the 2008 economic downturn and corporate scandals.

Instead of just penalizing companies with monetary fines, the policies prioritize the prosecution of individual employees and pressure corporations to turn over evidence against their executives.

"Corporations can only commit crimes through flesh-and-blood people," said Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, who authored the memo, in an interview with The New York Times on Wednesday. "It's only fair that the people who are responsible for committing those crimes be held accountable. The public needs to have confidence that there is one system of justice and it applies equally regardless of whether that crime occurs on a street corner or in a boardroom."

Yates also delivered a speech at New York University Law School on Thursday elaborating on the DOJ crackdown, which calls on federal authorities to stop providing individuals with "protection from criminal or civil liability," USA Today reports.

"Effective immediately, we have revised our policy guidance to require that if a company wants any credit for cooperation, any credit at all, it must identify all individuals involved in the wrongdoing, regardless of their position, status or seniority in the company, and provide all relevant facts about their misconduct,'' said Yates. "It's all or nothing. No more picking and choosing what gets disclosed. No more partial credit for cooperation that doesn't include information about individuals,'' Yates said.

Yates went on to say that the proposal was designed to hold Wall Street executives accountable.

The "mission here is not to recover the largest amount of money from the greatest number of corporations. Our job is to seek accountability from those who break our laws and victimize our citizens. It's the only way to truly deter corporate wrongdoing," she said.