President Donald Trump has picked a Georgia pastor to be the new “reentry czar,” a position created in the White House to help former inmates find housing, employment and other opportunities to provide “second chances” for success after they leave prison .
Trump outlined the initiative in a 2018 executive order establishing a Federal Interagency Council on Crime Prevention and Improving Reentry that he tasked with developing recommendations for reform.
He will announce this week that he has selected Tony Lowden, pastor of Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, to be the council’s executive director, two White House officials told McClatchy.
“The president has been totally committed to second chances and this is that next step to pave the way, and really creating, and reducing recidivism,” Ja’Ron Smith, a deputy assistant to the president and member of the council, said of Lowden’s appointment.
Lowden will work directly with local communities to bring together former inmates, businesses, associations, law enforcement and faith-based and community groups to partner on helping former prisoners succeed after they are released from federal custody.
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