Rev. Rodney Hunter has served as a pastor for over 30 years. Through his faith and sermons, he aims to build community and to help create a world where people are not seen as their mistakes, but, rather, as people who can be redeemed. 

“We all make mistakes, and we all need a second chance. We've all fallen short of God's glory; needed to be forgiven, and needed a chance to make right those wrongs that we have committed,” he said.  

It’s through community that Rev. Hunter believes people can begin receiving their second chance: the more formerly incarcerated people are accepted into their communities upon reentry, the more likely they will be to succeed and move forward. 

“Once [people] see that [people who’ve been incarcerated] are not monsters, they’d be willing to offer the help … and the forgiveness, and to become advocates for justice for people who are coming out of the system,” said Rev. Hunter. 

Rev. Hunter’s advocacy extends from the church into other branches of the community. He’s chaired the Richmond Juvenile court volunteer program, taught religion and spirituality at the Richmond City Jail, served on the Board of Directors of the Virginia Southern Poverty Law Center, and worked with CARITAS, a community caring for people who are unhoused and/or addicted. 

“I used to teach in the city jail and meet the ones [incarcerated people] going into the population. You become a part of them, and they become a part of you. They share their stories. The longer we distance ourselves from the person, we’ll never know them, and we’ll never trust them. So, it [community] happens by us living with the individuals, in knowing, too, that these persons are just like we are,” said Rev. Hunter. 

And he’s seen what can happen when returned citizens feel supported. 

“I have a friend who fought in Vietnam, then came back with PTSD. Wonderful person! He just got kind of entangled fighting for the country. He came out of war, made a mistake, went to court, then to prison. Came out. Can’t vote. Hard to get a job. He wants to get his life back together. He wants to do the right thing. What are we supposed to do? Just sit back and watch that good man?” said Rev. Hunter. “Now he’s got his life together, voting rights restored, ran for city council in Newport News. All he needed was a chance, and he’s taken advantage of it to get his life back together – but he had to have that chance.” 

As an advocate, Rev. Hunter practices forgiveness and believes that it’s important to address some of life’s discomforts for the sake of helping the community to become better. 

“We can’t continue to [hate] everybody who does evil. That doesn’t help the person who is a victim, and it’s not helping society and the community,” he said. 

Rev. Hunter believes that by offering people the help they need, and by withholding judgement, more people can receive their second chances and, in turn, give second chances to others. 

“When we help that person, that person becomes an advocate, and the model to say: ‘I’m an example of what a person can do and how a person can rebuild their life.’ We should all be promoting helping others. We have to do everything we can to give people a second chance…,” he said. “These are people who deserve to be treated with dignity. And as long as they want to do good, we need to help them try to rebuild their lives.” 

Amber Bowman served four years in prison before she was pardoned in 2022 by Governor Northam.  

Before she was pardoned, Amber was sentenced to 16 years in prison for a probation violation – substantially longer than the four to six months her sentencing guidelines projected. At the time of her sentencing, she was struggling with substance use disorder. 

She felt blindsided. 

“I was just in a really hopeless situation where I didn’t even think it was possible for me to get out of prison,” she said. “… [B]eing blessed with a second chance from Governor Northam really meant so much to me…. And to be given an opportunity to do it the right way really meant everything to me.” 

While Amber was incarcerated, she used the time to self-reflect. She began to process her trauma. She read self-help books, worked towards forgiveness, and explored avenues and tools to help her heal. She pulled aspects from yoga, meditation, and mindfulness practices and combined them with trauma therapy, and with the help of her bunkmates, began testing different approaches. 

“I worked with some of my bunkmates, some of the people that I lived with, and just kind of tested and saw how everything worked, and I saw a transformation. And people who actually did it and really put effort into it, I saw big changes in them. So I was like, ‘Okay, I know now that when I get out, I’ll be able to use this and it’ll be … beneficial for people,’” said Amber. 

Today, Amber is a peer recovery specialist at Richmond Behavioral Health, and she teaches her clients to use these same tools when confronting their trauma. 

“… I really struggled for a long time because I felt like there was something wrong with me. I had a lot of mental issues, addiction issues, and all of it was rooted in trauma. I feel there’s probably a lot of people that don’t understand that a lot of their mental health symptoms and their addiction issues are rooted in something deeper. So, I really like to try to work with people on the underlying trauma,” said Amber. 

Amber believes this is important not only so that people can heal internally, but so that society can change systemically. 

“If … we could help people heal from their underlying issues that even got them incarcerated in the first place, they could get out and be helpful to the community,” she said. “But instead, Virginia takes the stance of just locking people up for decades at a time…. [T]he justice system doesn’t look at the whole person, all they look at is this one snapshot of the crime you committed. And we wonder why [people] aren’t successful when they get out.” 

In both her personal life and her career, Amber is committed to proving that second chances are possible through hard work from the person and through understanding and support from the community. 

“I just try to do everything that I can to have a positive impact on society, to show people that it’s possible to come out from being incarcerated and be successful,” said Amber. 

As a sociologist, Taj Mahon-Haft collected data on criminal legal reform and taught his students about the injustices of the criminal legal system.  

He was an advocate, passionate about teaching others about the criminal legal system’s inequity and inequalities. And then he became directly impacted. 

“I was doing this as a teacher and trying to make a change in that way because that was something I cared about since I was young. And the more I learned, the more I cared. But then I found myself unexpectedly in the justice system, and impacted directly by it myself, and that led to a terrible situation at first,” said Taj. 

Incarceration took a toll on Taj. He experienced depression and suicidal thoughts. Early on, he was placed in solitary confinement in the jail where he was held – a punishment utilized by jails, prisons, and immigration detention centers that takes someone out of the prison population and places them in a small room, alone, with little access to activities outside of the solitary cell. 

“I felt despair. I felt like everything that I’d built and everything I cared about in terms of my family – which was the most important thing – was gone. And I didn’t know if I was ever going to feel it again and see it again or even get a hug from another human being,” said Taj. “…Solitary confinement was the ultimate low point.” 

Ultimately, it was his connection to his family and friends that not only kept Taj going, but motivated him to work towards a second chance – not only for himself, but for others who were incarcerated with him. 

Taj’s loved ones cared that he was impacted by the criminal legal system, and he soon realized that the more they got to know the friends he made while incarcerated, the more they began to care that his friends were impacted, as well. Because, now, the people incarcerated with Taj weren’t just numbers: they were names and faces. 

“In conversations with loved ones … I realized that, all of a sudden, they cared about the justice system and reform,” said Taj. “It reminded me and reinforced and amplified how much I cared about changing the system.” 

While Taj was incarcerated, he also grew closer to a long-time friend from college, Gin. Their friendship blossomed into love, and she vowed to not only stick by Taj throughout his incarceration, but also to help him work towards an earlier release date. She also committed to helping Taj in his efforts to share the stories of system-impacted people. 

Gin and Taj founded The Humanization Project, which works to humanize system-impacted people through first-hand experiences, education, research, and creative writing. 

“My sentence was supposed to end in 2026, and she was willing to wait nine years potentially. She said she wanted to help me get out of prison. Right now, it is February 27, 2024, … and I am not imprisoned, and that is a direct result of the work that she and I did together to get not just myself out, but [thousands of] people,” said Taj. 

With The Humanization Project, Gin and Taj have worked with lawmakers, civil rights organizations, and advocates to pass the expanded earned sentence credit (ESC) program. The program incentivizes hard work and good behavior by allowing incarcerated people to earn credits towards their release. In addition, their grassroots organization works with an evergrowing network of returned citizens, people who are incarcerated, and their loved ones to expand opportunities for second chance and humane treatment through other campaigns.

The law expanding the program was initially passed by the Virginia General Assembly in 2020, but in 2022, was blocked by the Youngkin administration from taking full effect – meaning many people who’d worked hard towards their release were no longer having all of the credits they’d earned honored. 

The Humanization Project, people impacted by the system, advocates, patrons, and partners worked for another two years to advocate for the expanded ESC program. 

And on July 1, 2024, the expanded ESC program finally went into effect – giving those people who’d earned it, a second chance. 

“Second Chances are ... the human side, the stuff that makes life really joyful, the people, the human connections, but also being able to take that human connection and make a difference every single day,” said Taj. “That is what a second chance to me is: showing the world that we are all so much more than our worst moment” 

Taj got his second chance. Now he’s committed to helping others receive theirs.