New probation chief wants everyone to have the same chances he had
Hank Gibson: ‘I want to make sure that people in the community see that, hey, you have a chance regardless of the color of your skin.’
Hank Gibson knew from a young age he wanted to help people in a specific way. Seeing two of his brothers struggle with incarceration and addiction and come out on the other side inspired him to work to change the way the criminal justice system treats people.
Now, with 31 years of community corrections and human resources experience behind him, he has taken the helm of the Portage County Office of Adult Probation as its newest chief, starting in August. Gibson began his career as a probation officer for the county in 1989.
The Portager sat down with Gibson to discuss this journey to the position, why he does what he does, the Black Lives Matter movement and his plans for the office. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
I was wondering if you might talk to me a little bit about your background, your road to becoming the chief of probation.
I got into the field because I wanted to help people. This is something I’ve always wanted to do, why they get in it for the money because you don’t make a lot of money. I had a brother who did some prison time. So that also prompted me to get in the field to try and help people turn their lives around and not not fall in the same trap.
My goal has always been to change lives. You know, people make mistakes. I try not to prejudge. I treat them as I would want to be treated. But also, at the same time, you have to hold them accountable.
Has there been anyone who’s had an influence on you?
Robert Fankhauser [former Chief Probation Officer for the Portage County Adult Probation Department], he was a mentor of mine — love the guy like a father. Frank Hairston [Portage County NAACP Publicity Chair] is a good friend of mine. His dad was more of a mentor than Frank, but Frank’s a mentor to me as well. For me, it wasn’t just all Black, it wasn’t all white. I had a combination of both races who have taken an interest in me, they saw something in my character that they liked and they’ve always been supportive of me. I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for all of the support I’ve gotten from people in my community.
I worked my tail off, too. I come from a poor community. Grew up in McElrath. I grew up in there when there wasn’t any running water. In the ’60s and early ’70s when I grew up there, there were no sewer lines. So we had the outhouses and we had to pump the water. So I was a product of that community, and I was able to work my way out of the community.
But I’m thankful, I’m blessed. I could not have scripted my life if I wanted to. It’s a beautiful life really. And of course for me with the hard work, dedication and support is what got me where I am today.
There are a few studies I’ve looked into where there are certain probationary offices where it’s more or less a court-to-prison pipeline. That doesn’t seem to be what happens here.
Years ago, when I started, it was punitive. Now, it’s more social work. You’re guiding these people, you know, you’re seeing what caused them to come into the system. And then you try to address those causes. Each guy that is placed on probation, we do an assessment; it’s a needs assessment.
There’s like seven domains, and we do an assessment. If the domain is high, those are the areas we want to focus on. If it’s low, you want to stay away from the low-area domains. And most of the guys we come in contact with [have needs in] substance abuse and financial [domains]. So we want to make sure they address those needs in the community as opposed to prison.
In Portage County, I mean this is the Rust Belt, the opioid epidemic has affected us as hard as anyone could be affected. With you being the chief, what does your office want to do to work to address it?
We’re using our community-based correction facilities. We also have a drug court here. Judge [Becky] Doherty’s program where it’s, I believe, it’s a two-year program where they meet on a regular basis. It’s very intense. They meet with the judge along with the drug court team to address their needs and make sure they’re abstaining from substances. Back in the day we didn’t have the resources that we have now, Carter. I mean, if someone’s drug dependent, there is no excuse, because we have all of the resources. We have a plethora of treatment agencies around there for folks who are in need, who are serious about their substance abuse.
[The Ohio] Department of Rehabilitation and correction, they don’t want substance-dependent people in prisons. In the past, the prisons were polluted with drug addicts. So they are giving monies to various counties so they can address substance abuse in the community.
One of the programs we have here, too, is intensive supervised probation where people come in once a week, and we make sure that they’re drug testing, we’re making sure that they’re going to counseling, we’re making sure that they’re employed and we’re making sure that they’re going to meetings and that they have an outlet.
The goal is to do our best to rehabilitate them in the community by addressing their drug issues. Save the prisons for the violent offenders. We’re filling up our prison system with offenders that are drug dependent. It’s an illness. It’s an illness and I think we need to try and address it in our community.
Yeah, back then it sounds more punitive, but now —
We’re more social workers now. We work exhaustively with our offenders in the community before we, before you even consider sending them to prison or jail.
With your decades of prior experience, what do you want to see out of the probation office, your office?
I want to make sure that we’re meeting the needs of the people we serve. The ultimate goal is to try to rehabilitate the offender in the community as opposed to sending the prison the nonviolent drug-related offenses and reserve the prisons for the violent offenders. That’s always been my goal.
Sometimes it’s quite frustrating, too, because the success rate is not as high as we’d like it to be. It’s probably hovering anywhere around a 45 percent success rate of those being placed on community control.
Why do you think the number is so low?
I would say a lot of the offenders that we’re dealing with know now there’s no real consequence. If you’re a nonviolent felony drug offender, you more than likely are not going to go to prison. And they know that there’s no real consequence.
The jail wants to keep the jail available for violent offenders, those waiting to go to trial for a violent offense. So I would say one of the reasons why the success rate is low is because the offender is smart enough to know there’s no real consequences, unfortunately. And here’s the thing, quite frankly, they got to want to change, and a lot of people take a while before they get it together and say, “Hey, I am sick and tired of standing in the criminal justice system.” And once that light bulb comes on, then they’re going to do the right thing.
That’s my experience. And again, when I started, you could send anybody to jail or prison. It could be a nonviolent offense, nonviolent drug offense, you could send those guys to prison, especially if they violated their terms and conditions of probation. Now, you don’t have that tool. So our goal is to get them in the local programming. I like to use the term “keep throwing programming at them and hopefully something sticks.”
The United States has a very racialized policing and criminal justice system. With your position here, do you think there is anything, at least within the county, that you could or want to do to address those sorts of things?
I think first and foremost, I think the people in our community and our country need to see people that look like them. And a high-profile position, whether it’s the president’s cabinet, whether it’s the Adult Probation Department, whether is the police department, the fire department — little, young, Black and white poor kids, they want to see people in positions that look like them, so they can have a goal to strive for. With me growing up in the ’60s, I didn’t see a whole bunch of people that look like me in high-profile areas.
I want to make sure that people in the community see that, hey, you have a chance regardless of the color of your skin. If you work hard, if you treat people the way you want to be treated, stay out of trouble, there’s an opportunity for everybody.
But you need people that support change. If I didn’t have judges who support change and support diversity, I wouldn’t be here today. That’s imperative no matter where you are. I’m thankful that throughout my life, I’ve had positive influences and people who cared about me and saw the positive things in me and my character to give me a chance. It’s all about opportunity.
And so with your administration here, is that something you hope to continue, offering opportunity?
Oh, absolutely, absolutely. We’ve tried our best throughout my tenure here, whether it was as a supervisor, whether it was as the assistant chief or now in my position as chief is to make sure you have a diverse staff. You have to have a blend of women, men, Black, Hispanic, so we try our best to make sure that we’re diverse.
How’s that worked out so far?
It’s a process. You can’t call the person to say, “Hey, are you Black?” Or, “Are you gay?” But over the years, our judges and my predecessors have done a nice job, for lack of better word, “diversifying” our department.
First and foremost, they gotta be qualified. You don’t want to appoint somebody just because of the color of their skin or their gender. You want to make sure that they’re qualified, and we’ve done a nice job of that.
The people we serve, you know, it’s nice when a person of color comes in they say, “Hey, I’m not the only Black person in here.” They see that and say, “Hey, maybe I’ll get a fair chance.”
The Black Lives Matter movement has been going on — you could say it’s been going on since the ’60s — but really, in recent times, since 2014. In light of the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, Black Lives Matter became this big thing a lot of people are talking about. Part of the way they’re talking about it is in terms of prison, parole and probation. And so I’m wondering, from your perspective, how you feel the Black Lives Matter movement ties in or could affect community corrections?
I think we want to make sure that we’re fair to everybody that we encounter and don’t prejudge a person because of the color of their skin. And as far as Black Lives Matter, you know I don’t talk much about it, but I’m certainly affected by it. We don’t ask for anything more. You know, people think you talk about Black Lives Matter that we want to be elevated above somebody of a particular race, and we don’t. We just want the same opportunities. And I think that’s the same when I deal with an offender: I want to give them each the same opportunity. As an African American, I’m not gonna give a Black offender more opportunity than I give the white offender. I’m gonna treat them the same. And I’m gonna make sure that I address their needs the same way.
For me, as a person of the ’60s, it was nice to see the Black Lives Matter movement. And it was even more satisfying and gratifying to see how many young and old white people that are also engaged in changing the lives of everybody. For me, that was very powerful, very powerful. I told my wife it would be nice if this would have been the same thing in the ’60s, and maybe we would have started sooner, instead of just the majority [of civil rights supporters being] Black people. And now just for me, it was just so gratifying and satisfying to see the movement. And that’s how you change — you got to get everybody involved and make a change. Everybody has to be involved.
Click here to receive The Portager in your inbox
We’re the only locally owned news source covering Portage County, Ohio. Our mission is to help our community thrive. You can help us grow.
