Life as a convicted felon: First probation officer in Ohio with a felony conviction provides hope

Matt Gillespie begins his work day like many others. He answers phone calls, and sometimes shares laughs with colleagues. But Gillespie’s journey to this position wasn’t easy.

“By the time I turned 19, I was facing felony trafficking charges. I ended up doing a year in the state penitentiary,” Gillespie said.

After being released from prison, Gillespie returned to buying and selling drugs. He also began using drugs himself.

“With untreated alcoholism and addiction, I lost the power to choose whether or not I was going to go to that next level,” Gillespie said, “That summer I found myself with a needle sticking out of my arm, and I had started IV drug use.”

As a result, Gillespie’s livers and kidneys began to fail. He said he was in the hospital for three weeks, and down to 130 pounds.

After doctors took out Gillespie’s gull bladder, they determined the 20-year-old was suffering from an autoimmune disorder.

“I was getting out of the hospital the day before my twenty-first birthday, and the doctor sat down at the edge of my bed and said he strongly recommended I stop drinking, so I asked, ‘What about drugs?’ He replied, ‘That’s suicide,’” Gillespie said.

Despite his doctor’s orders, Gillespie returned to his previous lifestyle.  

“Two days after that I was hustling again, and within two weeks I was selling drugs. The only life I knew at that time,” Gillespie said.

It wasn’t until Gillespie received two more felony convictions that he knew it was time to ask for help, and he did.

“I met a probation officer who saw something in me that I couldn’t see in myself,” he said, “That’s when I started to realize there’s more in this world than selling dope and being a criminal.”

After working his way up to a district manager position at Domino’s, and eventually to a manager position at a car dealership, Gillespie knew he wanted to become a resource to people battling addiction. That passion inspired him to accept a job as a probation officer for Portage County Judge Becky Doherty.

 “It was a piece we were missing that we didn’t know was missing until we got him,” Doherty said.

Doherty has led Hope Drug Court for four years now. It’s a program designed to provide support and resources for those who have received a drug-related felony conviction.

Doherty says she hired Gillespie nearly one year ago because he embodies her court’s mission. “He gives such hope to them that not only was he able to survive, he was also able to build a life that involves a marriage and children and a good job, and all of the things they thought were out of reach,” she said.  

“When I’m out in the community, I am extremely proud. I am a probation officer. I wear that insignia proudly,” Gillespie said.

Gillespie said 16 years ago, this job would have never been a realistic expectation for him — not even a possibility. Gillespie said he is the first convicted felon to inherit this role as a probation officer in the state of Ohio, and he says he will continue to advocate for change.

“Every probation department should have a peer supporter. Every courtroom should have a peer supporter,” he said.

Gillespie said he wants people battling addiction to know that there is no definite possibility, “There’s no end,” he said. “The world is our oyster.”