More criticism of prison-reform only efforts, while failing to…

Todd Cox, policy director at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, has this notable new commentary in The Hill headlined "Sentencing reform is moving in the wrong direction." Here are excerpts with a bit of additional commentary to follow: In 2015, Senator Chuck Grassley introduced a long awaited bi-partisan criminal justice reform bill designed to address inequities in federal sentencing and promote rehabilitation and re-entry for persons who are incarcerated.

Trump tremors! – CARICOM jittery over Washington’s lack of engagement with the region

Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister Kamina Johnson Smith speaks with then United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the most senior member of the Trump administration to visit the island since Trump was elected US president. Johnson Smith is expected to lead Jamaica's delegation to the regional foreign ministers meeting in The Bahamas starting tomorrow.

Gathering aims to relaunch Minuteman project, fortify border, in response to Central American caravan

Minutemen and border security supporters gather before heading to the U.S.-Mexico border on Saturday. Pledging to report unauthorized entries into the United States - and shame any state leaders who welcome them - about 20 border security supporters assembled Saturday morning near Jamul.

Oklahoma governor to decide on juvenile life sentencing bill

An Oklahoma measure awaits Gov. Mary Fallin's signature that would allow only judges, not juries, to sentence juveniles to life imprisonment without parole for murder. Lawmakers introduced the measure because of U.S. Supreme Court decisions that practically eliminated mandatory life without parole sentences for offenders who are accused of killing when they were 17 or younger, The Oklahoman reported.

Ex-coal baron takes swipe at “China people” in political ad

An ex-coal executive who's running for U.S. Senate after serving a one-year prison sentence has unleashed a political ad that takes swipes at "China people" and calls the Senate majority leader "Cocaine Mitch." Former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship, a Republican, is seeking the West Virginia seat now held by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, but his ad disparages Kentucky GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell.

Georgia executes killer of off-duty prison guard

A Georgia inmate executed Friday for a 1996 shotgun slaying twitched briefly as the lethal injection flowed into his body and groaned, "It burns, man." Robert Earl Butts Jr., 40, was declared dead by a prison warden at 9:58 p.m. after the compounded barbiturate pentobarbital was injected into his body.

Like wrestling

So what's it going to be, America: a democratic republic, or Trumpistan? A nation governed by the rule of law, or an oversized kleptocracy, whose maximum leader uses the decayed shell of government to punish his political enemies and reward friends and family? In another way of putting it, the United States government increasingly resembles a professional wrestling spectacle - all scripted feuds and melodramatic revenge plots enacted by a cast of alternately sinister and clownish figures skirting the edge of self-parody. According to The Washington Post, President Trump has personally intervened with the postmaster general in a fruitless effort to double the rates Amazon.com pays the U.S. Postal Service to ship packages.

Ex-police officer on Texas death row loses federal appeal

This photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows Robert Fratta, former suburban Houston police officer on death row for hiring a hitman to kill his estranged wife in 1994. In a ruling late Tuesday, May 1, 2018, Fratta lost an appeal moving him a step closer to execution.

Mueller raises possibility of Trump subpoena: former Trump lawyer

Special Counsel Robert Mueller, in a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump's lawyers in March, raised the possibility of issuing a subpoena for Trump if he declines to talk to investigators in the Russia probe, a former lawyer for the president said on Tuesday. John Dowd told Reuters that Mueller mentioned the possibility of a subpoena in the early March meeting.

Gillibrand urges Congress to pass military sexual assault legislation

U.S. Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand, D-New York, is again criticizing the military's handling of sexual assault victims following the latest Department of Defense report that showed more cases are ending without convictions. The senator on Tuesday released a statement on the DoD's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office report , saying that not enough is being done to convict accused sexual offenders in the military.

Despite Donald Trump’s threats, U.S. officials allow caravan members to seek asylum

For weeks, President Donald Trump has expressed alarm about a caravan of Central American migrants heading for the United States and vowed to keep them out. But on Tuesday, U.S. officials allowed a second group of the asylum seekers across the border, their fate now in the hands of immigration officials and judges.

Migrant caravan arrives at California’s doorstep, amid protests, cheers and questions

A group of immigrants from Central America, whose caravan north earned the ire of President Donald Trump and became a flash point in the roiling debate over illegal immigration, requested asylum at the California border Sunday in a scene marked by emotion and theater. As the boisterous gathering at the border fence in Playas de Tijuana grew to hundreds, some waved Honduran flags, called out chants and waved bouquets of yellow flowers.