diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index cb6687464c..26f07fe5b3 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@
  * Upgrade jackson-databind to 2.9.10.8 (CASSANDRA-16462)
 Merged from 3.0:
  * Fix ColumnFilter behaviour to prevent digest mitmatches during upgrades (CASSANDRA-16415)
- * Update debian packaging for python3 (CASSANDRA-16396)
  * Avoid pushing schema mutations when setting up distributed system keyspaces locally (CASSANDRA-16387)
 Merged from 2.2:
  * Fix centos packaging for arm64, >=3.0 rpm's now require python3 (CASSANDRA-16477)
diff --git a/debian/compat b/debian/compat
index b4de394767..7ed6ff82de 100644
--- a/debian/compat
+++ b/debian/compat
@@ -1 +1 @@
-11
+5
diff --git a/debian/control b/debian/control
index 8028f5ae3d..6a0128e447 100644
--- a/debian/control
+++ b/debian/control
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ Section: misc
 Priority: extra
 Maintainer: Eric Evans <eevans@apache.org>
 Uploaders: Sylvain Lebresne <slebresne@apache.org>
-Build-Depends: debhelper (>= 11), openjdk-8-jdk | java8-jdk, ant (>= 1.9), ant-optional (>= 1.9), dh-python, python3-dev (>= 3.6), dpatch, bash-completion
+Build-Depends: debhelper (>= 5), openjdk-8-jdk | java8-jdk, ant (>= 1.9), ant-optional (>= 1.9), dh-python, python-dev (>= 2.7), dpatch, bash-completion
 Homepage: http://cassandra.apache.org
 Vcs-Git: http://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf/cassandra.git
 Vcs-Browser: https://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf?p=cassandra.git
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ Standards-Version: 3.8.3
 
 Package: cassandra
 Architecture: all
-Depends: openjdk-8-jre-headless | java8-runtime, adduser, python3 (>= 3.6), ${misc:Depends}
+Depends: openjdk-8-jre-headless | java8-runtime, adduser, python (>= 2.7), ${misc:Depends}
 Recommends: ntp | time-daemon
 Suggests: cassandra-tools
 Conflicts: apache-cassandra1
diff --git a/debian/rules b/debian/rules
index 5acb71680d..ff1d64df1b 100755
--- a/debian/rules
+++ b/debian/rules
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ build-stamp: patch-stamp
 
 	$(ANT) generate-cql-html
 	$(ANT) jar
-	cd pylib && python3 setup.py install --no-compile --install-layout deb \
+	cd pylib && python setup.py install --no-compile --install-layout deb \
 		--root $(CURDIR)/debian/cassandra
 
 	touch build-stamp
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ install: build
 	dh_testroot
 	dh_installdirs
 	dh_install
-	dh_python3
+	dh_python2
 
 	# Copy in the jar and symlink to something stable
 	dh_install build/apache-cassandra-$(VERSION).jar \