WASHINGTON
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.
That will include efforts to educate former inmates on their employment and housing opportunities.
Lowden has worked on prison reform initiatives in Georgia and served as the director of the faith and justice initiative for former Republican Gov. Nathan Deal in his Office of Transition Support and Reentry, according to his church biography. He gained national recognition as pastor to former Democratic President Jimmy Carter, who teaches Sunday school at Maranatha.
The Georgia pastor did not respond to a request for comment on the appointment.
Smith said in an interview with McClatchy that Lowden will join a team within the White House that works on issues like opportunity zones -- the low-income areas for which the Trump administration has approved tax breaks for investors — and funding and outreach to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
The team is currently comprised of Ashley Bell, another new policy advisor from Georgia who is focused on entrepreneurship and minority and distressed communities; Smith; Johnathan Holifield, who leads the White House HBCU initiative; and Scott Turner, a former NFL player the president appointed executive director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council.
“We’re committing a real team that’s not just talking about results but creating opportunity now,” Smith said.
Lowden’s hiring is the next step in expanding those efforts.
“It’s not opportunity tomorrow. It’s not opportunity yesterday. It’s opportunity right now, and in order to get opportunity right now, we need robust partnerships,” Smith said.
Smith has been to more than 20 cities to promote the president’s agenda, he said, while Turner has been to at least 60.
The White House will take its message on Feb. 7 to Charlotte, North Carolina, where it will hold the first in a series of revitalization and “opportunity now” summits. It hopes to hold at least three more in urban areas.
“Heck, we may even go into a rural community,” Smith said. “But right now we want to have a successful first conference. We expect this to go really well, and we have a couple other cities we’re working with now.”
The White House says the half-day summit in Charlotte that the president plans to attend will feature workshops on inmate reentry into society, economic development for low-income areas, infrastructure, and the future of HBCUs. Participants will provide advice on how to best compete for federal and state resources.
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and Small Business Administration Administrator Jovita Carranza will also speak at the event. The White House said it invited Charlotte’s mayor to attend, as well as members of the city council, heads of churches, nonprofit organizations, businesses and other government officials in the metropolitan area.
A spokeswoman for Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles could not immediately confirm the Democrat’s invitation or say whether she planned to attend the summit.
This story was originally published February 03, 2020 5:00 AM.
