President Trump and NC Republicans Lead on Criminal Justice Reform | Eastern North Carolina Now

Press Release:

    Raleigh NC — Last year, President Donald J. Trump and Congressional Republicans delivered landmark criminal justice reform with the North Carolina Republican Congressional delegation leading the way in the passage of the First Step Act. Today, President Trump and North Carolina Republicans both delivered decisive action on behalf of criminal justice reform.

    Minutes ago in Raleigh, the Republican majorities in the North Carolina legislature passed North Carolina's Second Chance act which reduces unfair sentencing and helps people get a job once their sentence is over. Earlier today at the White House, President Trump signed a landmark executive order limiting excessive force, creating a database to track corrupt cops and providing additional resources to police departments to handle challenging situations.

    The successes President Trump has racked up on criminal justice reform in his first term stand in stark contrast to the decades Joe Biden has spent passing draconian legislation. Former Senator Joe Biden personally worked to pass the 1994 crime bill that led to much of the mass incarceration that the Trump criminal justice reform sought to address.

    Like Biden, Governor Roy Cooper spent the 1990's implementing draconian legislation that criminal justice advocates decry. This afternoon, the Republican State House and State Senate unanimously passed North Carolina's Second Chance Act which undoes a number of laws that then state senator Cooper personally sponsored. During the 1990s, Cooper served in the State Senate as the Judiciary Committee Chairman and personally sponsored legislation to double mandatory minimums, increase the prison time for marijuana possession and eliminate parole board reviews.

    While Cooper and Biden's liberal allies daydream about how to defund the police, President Trump and North Carolina Republicans have made criminal justice reform a reality.

    "North Carolina Republican Legislative Leaders are taking decisive action to reform the Criminal Justice system and help returning citizens get back to work," said NCGOP Press Secretary Tim Wigginton. "Just like on the national level, North Carolina Republicans are working to fix the criminal justice system and overturn the policies implemented by Democrats like Roy Cooper that have wreaked havoc upon too many North Carolinian families for too long."

• Contact: Tim Wigginton
•     communications@ncgop.org