Presidential election years mean an opportunity for citizens to perform our civic duty, but for Christina Duncan it has deeper significance, as she had to regain her right to vote.
At 25 years old, Christina Duncan wound up in a West Virginia federal prison on federal drug charges, stripping her civic rights, including being able to vote.
Christina’s story is unfortunately not an unfamiliar one. She says her early teens were influenced by addiction, and unhealthy, abusive relationships that caused her own addictions and poor choices.
Those choices resulted in a three-year prison sentence plus probation, but Christina’s inner strength embodied one of her favorite quotes: “All things work together for good, for those who love God and are called according to His purpose.” – Romans 8:28
Christina concedes her difficult life before and during incarceration. However, she views those challenges as eye openers to a life she did not realize was possible. “Growing up in brokenness and addictions, and then with my own addictions, making so many mistakes, I did not have much hope for life at all. Many times, I wished my life would end. But God, in His grace, mercy and wisdom allowed me to be set apart from my life through a prison sentence to see a bigger picture of what my life was and ultimately could be in Him.”
During her prison sentence, Christina says she came to know the Lord, and “He blessed me all throughout my time with grace and peace.” She completed an extensive drug and alcohol program that afforded her time off her sentence.
Christina performed several community service acts while in prison. She worked with the local mayor at the community center. She sang with the prison choir at local churches. She spoke and prayed with local high school students.
Eva Pierce, the executive director of Hand Up for Women, and Christina Duncan
Released from prison, Christina came to Knoxville not knowing anyone, but the classes and mentors at Hand UP for Women transformed her life. She says after coming to Knoxville, she met Eva Pierce, the director of Hand Up for Women, which is a program for women of all backgrounds and circumstances.
The program teaches women to live healthy, self-sufficient, God honoring lives covering all areas of living: healthy eating on a budget, finances, relationships, dealing with hurts, anger interviewing, job readiness and even car care.
Christina refers to the group as a lifelong community of women who become a family. She has continued to be a part of the program, through the graduate group, seeking to maintain relationships and provide encouragement to past and new participants coming into the program. She has served on the board of directors for the past three years, calling it one of her highest honors.
Having a criminal record does have its challenges, and besides Christina’s successful reentry into society, she faced several.
She recounts her story:
“Aside from coming to a place where I didn’t know anyone, the biggest challenge was getting a job. I didn’t have a very good work history and just being released from federal prison with a federal felony on my record. However, as the Lord does, He provided a job for me at a local janitorial company. I was able to learn a lot and grow with the business. I started moving up first to supervisory position and then into the office, eventually as the head of HR. I eventually moved on to a position that allowed me to work from home and still I believe honesty and a good work ethic allowed me to continue to grow in that position as well. I now work as a bookkeeper and office manager and have learned a lot over the years, for which I am grateful. All praise to God!”
A second major hurdle was her loss of civil rights. She says even something as simple as being able to be a notary public, which would help her in the current job, she cannot do.
At first, Christina could not vote, but she was able to get her voting rights back in 2019 and vote in the 2020 elections.
Currently she has filed for a presidential pardon to have all her rights restored which has been a long process and is also not guaranteed to be approved. She started the application process in 2018 and it took two years of paperwork and requested character affidavits from Hand UP for Women’s Eva Pierce and others. In the beginning of 2023, a retired FBI agent who conducts interviews for these pardons completed interviews with her, her neighbors, friends and her employer. The application is still currently pending.
Christina has a husband and three boys who she says, “Outside of salvation and my relationship with the Lord, they are my greatest treasures.” Two of her boys had the unfortunate experience of knowing her before her life was changed, and yet Christina says God has restored even them in all of this, and when she and her husband married, he adopted them as his own. The family enjoy the family farm where they can hike and be outdoors.
Christina says for everyone to remember this quote from Oswald Chambers: “It is not what a man does that is of final importance, but what he is in what he does. The atmosphere produced by a man, much more than his activities, has the lasting influence.”
All of us have a story and I want to tell yours! Send them to susan@knoxtntoday.com.