President Trump is planning to appoint former President Jimmy Carter’s pastor to oversee programs on recidivism and reentry for former prisoners.
According to The Washington Examiner:
President Trump plans to appoint the Georgia pastor who leads former President Jimmy Carter’s church as a new prison “reentry czar” to oversee programs on recidivism and reentry for former prisoners.
Pastor Tony Lowden, the first black pastor of Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia, will be the council’s executive director, two White House officials told McClatchy.
Lowden, 53, has worked on prison reform efforts in Georgia and as the director of the Faith and Justice Initiative in Republican Gov. Nathan Deal’s Office of Transition Support and Reentry, according to his church biography. Trump is expected to announce Lowden’s appointment this week.
The Trump campaign is courting minority voters ahead of the November election with policies aimed at showing positive outcomes for the black community. The White House team that Lowden is expected to join includes policy adviser Ashley Bell, deputy assistant to the president Ja’Ron Smith, the White House’s Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities lead Johnathan Holifield, and White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council lead, former NFL player Scott Turner.
President Trump has made criminal justice reform one of his major focuses. This is despite many on the left trying to classify him as racist.