First-Ever Former Prisoner Elected to NYS Assembly

Eddie Gibbs, a former prisoner in the notoriously violent Rikers Island jail complex who was moved between several prisons outside New York City over roughly three years after pleading guilty to manslaughter for killing a man in self-defense, may be the first person elected to the New York State Legislature who previously served time in prison, reports Reuters. Soon after his release, Gibbs took comedy classes and performed stand-up under the name Good Buddy, hoping to offset the notion that people should be afraid of someone convicted of a violent felony. He ended up working as a driver for about a decade for the celebrity criminal defense attorney Murray Richman, who encouraged him to enter politics. Gibbs said his past shapes his legislative priorities, including improving the lot of his district’s disproportionately high number of public-housing tenants and making it easier for people released from prison to reenter society. One of his first priorities is passing legislation to remove some of the obstacles young people leaving prison can face securing state identification. The New York Legislature does not have records to confirm that Gibbs is the first elected representative there to have been previously incarcerated.