Jason Gibson
Racism and socio-economic background are used in order to perpetuate mass incarceration and funnel people into prison. The world is waking up to this injustice, but far too few people are actually doing something about it. Jason Gibson is one exception.
A casualty of this unfair system himself, Gibson was sentenced to five years in prison in 2013, serving 45 months of his sentence. Now, he works with children from the area where he grew up in order to help them avoid falling into this cycle of injustice. Through his program Hood Code, Gibson works with children in order to teach them about computers and coding, giving them important skills that can hopefully open them up to better futures.
39-year-old Gibson was born and raised in Queensbridge, New York, an area that Gibson says is notorious for its violence and crime. That being said, because of Queensbridge’s ties to hip hop culture, residents like Gibson grow up with immense pride in where they came from.
“I think a lot of, especially guys from my generation, grew up with this sense of pride in our neighborhood and in ourselves. And we really...like it felt that way,” Gibson said. “It was evident in the way we carried ourselves and the way we moved around the city and into other neighborhoods.”
Though Gibson is proud of his Queensbridge roots, he recognizes that where he lived greatly impacted his becoming involved in crime from a young age. From the age of 14, Gibson was involved in the drug business, and between the ages of 19 and 31, this business grew progressively larger and larger.
This led to Gibson serving a year on Rikers Island as well as a second ten month stint in prison before his final time in prison in 2013. In 2013, Gibson was involved in a special narcotics case where he was specifically targeted using illegal wiretaps as well as illegal searches and seizures.
Gibson read the book The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander prior to entering prison which helped him understand the way that the law violated his rights. This book opened his eyes to the way mass incarceration imposes a new standard of racism, and drove Gibson to take matters into his own hands while in prison. He devoted himself to studying in the law library and earning his legal research certificate while incarcerated in order to uncover the way his case was mishandled.
“Just reading that book, it gave me so much resentment, and just it made me aware of my socio-economic circumstances that I never paid attention to growing up,” Gibson said.
Before going to prison in 2013, Gibson was beginning to distance himself from life on the street and was looking to engage in more legitimate business. Before he could do so, he was arrested, and he took a plea deal before fully realizing the ways his arrest was unlawful. Though he read Michelle Alexander’s book before becoming incarcerated, he had his family send it to him while in prison, and this inspired him to look even closer into the specifics of his case.
“That book gave me the tenacity to fight against the government,” Gibson said. “That book alone single-handedly gave me the determination and the willpower to get my legal research certificate.”
Gibson uncovered that much of the evidence against him was information from an illegal wiretap. He also discovered that, because he was not in the car when the police searched his car, this was an illegal search and seizure. On top of that, a private investigator hired by Gibson to uncover the wrongful behavior that went on in this case, discovered that the police searched his apartment after his arrest without actually obtaining a warrant first. The warrant was officially issued the morning after Gibson’s arrest, after his apartment had already been searched.
Gibson uncovered all of this information while in prison, as he was studying the law deeply in order to uncover the injustices in the legal system. However, because he took a plea deal, Gibson was unable to use this information in court. This is a common story, where people mistreated by the system are not given the resources to uncover these malpractices until it’s too late.
Though the information Gibson uncovered in prison could not be used to help his own case, the skills he learned while incarcerated have been incredibly valuable in helping him become who he is today. While incarcerated, Gibson not only took legal research classes in order to get his legal research certificate, he also helped to modernize the curriculum as an inmate program assistant. Gibson also worked in the library, which allowed him to have six months taken off his sentence. In addition to studying law, he also began pursuing other interests, including learning more about the tech industry.
“I spent my time [in the] law library, working on cases, [and] reading up on app development and technology,” Gibson said. “I was reading a lot of business class subscription stuff to business magazines: Bloomberg business, Forbes, Fortune, all that stuff. And I read a lot more in the tech industry and how it was growing.”
This inspired Gibson with ideas for tech startups and app development that he hopes to further pursue in the future. Gibson also read more about about slavery and racial injustices, which encouraged him to become more civically engaged. He combined these interests in order to inspire Hood Code.
Hood Code is a non-profit organization that Gibson began in order to improve his community. Helped by Defy Ventures, an organization offering entrepreneurship courses to formerly incarcerated individuals, Gibson knew what to do in order to start his own philanthropic endeavor.
“The goal of it is the introduction of computer coding. A lot of our kids don't even know that this exists. The games and apps that they play...they don't even understand how it's produced. They [are] only consumers of it. So it's about the introduction,” Gibson said. “It's about helping them harness skills, and then providing mentorship and helping get them into more sophisticated programs.”
Since July of 2019, Hood Code has served about 50 students, allowing them to understand computers in a new way and encouraging them to explore new ideas. Gibson got the word out about the program by printing flyers and taping them in every building he could, and he worked hard to get as many kids involved as possible.
“The main thing is the belief that this is going to be one of my ways that I change the legacy of New York City public housing and the community,” Gibson said.
Working with Hood Code has been incredibly rewarding for Gibson, and he looks forward to the legacy he is leaving.
“I love how it gives me the belief that I have the potential with this program to change the cultural and financial legacies of some of our students and families,” Gibson said.
He particularly loves the impact he gets to have on the lives of kids who are growing up similarly to the way he did. He wants to break the cycle and stop more people from being casualties of an unjust system.
“It's mainly about us loving kids...growing up in environments like I grew up in, and that will probably end up having some of the same experiences,” Gibson said. “If somebody doesn't intervene, trying to be that intervention, trying to be that [person] that allows them to pivot from crime into something else and help them to be a guide into...a different opportunity and different path.”
Hood Code has also allowed Gibson to come in contact with more tech professionals. The program allows Gibson to rub shoulders with big names in tech and business, expanding his network of useful contacts so that he can pursue even more business ventures in the future.
Until then, Gibson will continue his current work endeavors. Along with Hood Code, Gibson works at a non-profit law firm as a personal assistant, helping up to ten different clients at a time with public assistance, booking appointments, managing bank accounts, and more. Gibson also fills even more of his time as a loving father to his 16-year-old daughter Madison.
Though Gibson is working to end racial injustice and the use of mass incarceration to control people from lower socio-economic communities, he sees that there is still much more work to be done. He continues to resent the ways that he feels the government intentionally contributes to the disparities in his community, for example heavily policing Black people. The more he has studied, the more his eyes have been opened to what needs to change.
“I started getting really big into slavery. Because that's what...led me to want to understand the history of trying to control Black bodies,” Gibson said. “Prior to that, I think I just associated our neighborhood [with] poor people...I didn't really associate [it] with intentional government actions and intentional action on the behalf of powerful people in our country that create the type of neighborhoods that I grew up in.”
Gibson believes the criminal justice system requires drastic changes, including reentry and the services made available to formerly incarcerated individuals.
“We don't need drug programs and all that. We need real jobs, housing,” Gibson said. “We need apartments and jobs.”
Gibson feels that Witness’s “The Map” project is a good start to helping formerly incarcerated people with reentry. He thinks that one day, The Map can even become a place for people to sell their products, since he knows how innovative and creative formerly incarcerated people can be.
“I think that is a great opportunity for formerly incarcerated people to interact with people of similar lived experiences and to exchange resources and services,” Gibson said. “I'm saying that will empower them in many different ways, economically, socially, mentally. I see it as being a platform that's just well needed and long overdue.”
Abby Stern