How a 14-year-old man became addicted to amphetamines, went to prison for drug trafficking, and turned his life around by developing open-source software.
When you hear someone say they work as a software developer, you might imagine someone who was an excellent student and diligently studied IT at university, but some have led incredibly difficult lives. Gavin Ray, a software developer who became addicted to
Building from Zero After Addiction, Prison, and a Felony
https://gavinray97.github.io/blog/building-from-zero-after-addiction-prison-felony
Ray felt it was too risky to make public his history of amphetamine addiction and time in juvenile prison. However, in 2025, Preston Thorpe, who was serving time in prison while working as a software engineer at the database company Turso, revealed his own background.
A person who joined a company as a software engineer while serving time in prison shares their experience - GIGAZINE
After reading Thorpe's article, Ray wondered if there might be others with similar backgrounds who had quietly entered the technology industry. He also felt that since he had already built a certain level of career as a software developer and contributed to the community, disclosing his past wouldn't make things worse. He decided to reveal his background to help those who might think, 'I've made a mistake, so I have no future.'
◆At age 14, I became addicted to amphetamines and went to prison.
Ray was a model student until midway through middle school, but he was bullied because he was overweight, and coupled with hormonal changes, he began to harbor resentment and rebellious feelings towards those around him. As a result, he started getting into fistfights with the students who bullied him, rebelling against teachers, and eventually began using drugs that he bought from classmates.
Recalling the first time amphetamines worked for him, Ray said, 'It was like my life suddenly became perfect. I felt happy, confident, and like I could do anything. I wanted to feel like that for the rest of my life, while I was awake.'
However, Ray's family was not wealthy, so he reportedly turned to drug dealing himself to earn money to buy drugs, but this was quickly discovered and he was arrested. In the end, Ray was charged with a total of 17 counts, including possession of controlled substances with intent to manufacture or sell them, and spent two years, from the age of 14 to 16, in a high-security juvenile prison.
◆Kicked out by parents and started living alone, but was arrested again.
Ray, who earned his high school diploma while in prison, began attending a two-year
Ray had lived drug-free until he was 17, but he relapsed into selling drugs, which led to a huge fight with his father and ultimately, being kicked out of the house. At the time, Ray felt that being able to leave home was a 'sweet freedom and liberation,' and he left home without a plan, taking only his laptop, a backpack filled with his savings, and a suitcase packed with clothes.
Ultimately, Ray was able to stay in a friend's trailer home for $300 a month (approximately 48,000 yen), and while working as a landscaper and cashier, he continued to sell drugs as a side business. Ray was arrested and charged again for drug-related offenses and ended up spending the next 19 years in county jail.
◆I got a job after reading a newspaper article while in prison.
While in county jail, Ray happened to read a newspaper article about technology companies offering internship opportunities to underprivileged young people facing risks. Having spent his childhood in front of computers, teaching himself programming and creating modified versions of games, Ray had dreamed of becoming a game programmer since he was a child, so he cut out the article and kept it.
Afterward, 19-year-old Ray was transferred to a one-week job release program. This program allowed him to go out and work during the day if he could find a job within a week's grace period. Ray visited a company called Techtonic, which he had seen in a newspaper article, and explained his situation. Fortunately, Ray passed the interview and began working at Techtonic as a full-stack web developer intern.
Ray said, 'I had absolutely no knowledge of web development, and to begin with, I wasn't particularly interested in it, but this job far exceeded my expectations. Because of my criminal record, I thought I would spend the rest of my life in construction or something similar.' Later, the journalist who wrote the newspaper article that sparked the whole thing came to visit, and an article based on Ray's interview was also published.
Boulder tech academies swamped as they race to retrain workers – Boulder Daily Camera
Techtonic undertakes software development on a variety of contracts, many of which were SaaS MVP projects utilizing diverse technology stacks. This work was ideal for a budding software developer, and although Ray received little formal education, he learned front-end, back-end, and DevOps through practical experience, becoming proficient in multiple programming languages and databases.
◆Drug addiction and being fired, starting over from scratch
Ray met his current wife while working at Techtonic, but he relapsed into drug use. Furthermore, the manager at Techtonic disliked Ray and lied to the owner, claiming that Ray was hours late every day, which resulted in both Ray and his wife being fired.
Later, the discovery of Slack logs reportedly cleared Ray of the stigma of being late almost every day, but having lost his job, Ray's drug addiction worsened, and he was forced to move back in with his parents. However, the situation worsened because his father was also an addict. When his life at his parents' house fell apart, Ray and his wife ended up moving into a friend's spare room.
Having hit rock bottom with nothing but a change of clothes and a laptop, Ray asked himself, 'What am I doing with my life?' and decided he didn't want to live like that anymore and resolved to quit drugs. He started working washing dishes at a restaurant, and his wife also took a job delivering and installing large appliances in a warehouse with a friend, but they couldn't escape their difficult life.
Ultimately, his wife insisted that she would support the household for a while, allowing Ray to spend his time looking for an IT-related job. Convinced by this, Ray began a job search that lasted several months. He made it to the final interview stage many times and received job offers from eight companies, but all of them were rescinded by the HR departments, who stated that they did not hire people with criminal records. He felt as if a carrot had been snatched away from him.
Nevertheless, he managed to get a job at a startup in Miami with an annual salary of $50,000 (approximately 8 million yen), and they even covered his moving expenses and the cost of temporary accommodation through Airbnb. He also secured a promise of a significant raise after one year of employment, and Ray and his wife moved.
◆My encounter with Hasura and my career change
The systems at the company Ray joined were 'outdated Rails applications with accumulated technical debt,' and part of Ray's job was to rewrite these systems. In the process, Ray encountered
Meanwhile, Ray, who was working in Miami, was in financial trouble and hadn't received the promised raise. An employee at Hasura suggested, 'Why don't you just apply to Hasura?' So, he went for a perfunctory interview and was offered more than double his previous salary, which led Ray to decide to switch jobs to Hasura. He said it was hard to leave his current company because he really enjoyed his work there, but he stayed until they found a replacement before making the move.
Ray worked at Hasura for a while and eventually confessed his criminal record to the founders, but thankfully they still accepted him. Ray said, 'I had my dream job. I was working on developer tools that I genuinely love and am a heavy user of, and it was all part of the Postgres ecosystem. I never imagined I could find a job that suited me so well.'
◆Summary
Ray points out that he has made many mistakes, hurting people he cares about and wasting opportunities that others would have loved. Even after finally starting to move on the right path, he says that he has only managed to reach his current life thanks to luck, the support of those around him, timing, and people who looked at his future and made informed decisions.
Ray then commented, 'If you are reading this from the depths of addiction, poverty, a criminal record, or something else that seems like it will never end, I don't mean to insult you by saying it's easy. You may be in an unfair situation for a long time.' 'But it doesn't necessarily have to end there.' He expressed gratitude for the help of others that has brought him here and said that one day he hopes to be in the opposite position and be able to give someone else a chance.
Ray's blog has also been featured on the social news site
Building from zero after addiction, prison, and a felony | Hacker News
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48437406
One user claims to have lived on the streets, sleeping in parks and committing shoplifting and theft, but started working as an intern using a stolen laptop. This led to him earning a high salary in the technology industry and even buying a home and a family. However, this user suffers from imposter syndrome , feeling overrated, and says that his colleagues are unaware of his background.
Related Posts:
in Note, Posted by log1h_ik