Among last week’s political developments that received little attention from mainstream media is the “First Step Act” a bipartisan criminal justice reform plan spearheaded by President Donald Trump that offers some convicted criminals a way out of prison with Christian redemption and forgiveness the driving force.

According to the International Center for Prison Studies, the United States of America has the world’s largest prison population at more than 2.2-million followed by China, Russia, Brazil, India and Mexico.

The “First Step Act” aims to bring reasonable sentencing reforms to those non-violent convicted felons that have a reasonable chance at reentering crime-free American life while keeping dangerous criminals where they belong.

“Today I’m thrilled to announce my support for this bipartisan bill that will make our communities safer and give former inmates a second chance at life after they have served their time, so important,” Trump said Wednesday. “Today’s announcement shows that true bipartisanship is possible … Redemption is at the heart of the American Idea, and that’s what this is about.”

Team Trump has been studying prison reform for two years. They have joined hands with Republican, Democratic and community leaders to bring meaningful prison reforms to the forefront since the “Three Strikes Law” came about during the administration of former President Bill Clinton back in the 1990s which directly led to the USA being the prison capitol of the world.

The “First Step Act” plans to provide new incentives for low-risk inmates to learn new skills necessary to secure employment, avoid old habits and follow the law after their release from prison.

“These incentives will encourage them to participate in vocational training, educational coursework and faith-based programs … that reduce their chances of recidivism and in other words, reduce their chances of going back to prison substantially,” said the president during his announcement.

Another goal of this upcoming legislation is to place prison inmates closer to their families to allow for easier visitations by family members. When a jailed family member ends up in a federal prison a thousand miles from home their families cannot maintain ties and prisoners lose their sense of family and community. They are cut off leading to further depression, feelings of hopelessness and anger toward society in general.

With the growing acceptance of cannabis (marijuana) in the USA, many current prisoners are in jail because of non-violent marijuana possession and trafficking convictions. It is so hypocritical for society to keep inmates jailed for something that is being made legal. The time for prison reform is way past due in America.

There is a huge difference between those dealing in deadly fentanyl-laced heroin, crack and powder cocaine, meth and over-prescribed Oxycontin pain pills — and a local marijuana dealer. It remains fact that nobody dies from smoking pot.

President Trump went on to say, “… the bill includes reasonable sentencing reforms while keeping dangerous and violent criminals off our streets. In many respects, we’re getting very much tougher on the truly bad criminals – of which, unfortunately, there are many. But we’re treating people differently for different crimes. Some people got caught up in situations that were very bad.”

That is so true that people do get caught up in situations that for one reason or another they cannot escape. But at their core they are basically good people that made bad decisions to attempt to make easy money selling drugs or they stole property to support their drug habits. There is a big difference between people that break into homes and businesses to steal money, drugs, guns, electronics and jewelry verses someone who kills for the same end.

The “First Step Act” is an attempt to recruit from within for jobs that have opened up in America due to President Trump’s economic policies that have led to historically low unemployment rates for virtually every segment of the American population including blacks, Hispanics, Asians and women in the work force.

It’s beyond nice to see Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Congress working together in this constant atmosphere of obstruct, delay and deny President Trump any success in Making America Great Again.

About the Author Britt Nelson relocated to Costa Rica in 2011 from Florida, where he served as news editor for the Palatka Daily News, a newspaper owned by the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group (NYT-RNG) for 20 years.

Nelson served the NYT-RNG for 18 years in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida as a correspondent, reporter, staff writer, senior staff writer training new reporters, copy editor, page designer, editorial writer, editorial page editor and editorial board member.