Dean Jacobs wasn’t your typical UC Santa Barbara student.
He took part in a UC Santa Barbara humanities program remotely. The reason he was studying remotely is was because he was behind bars, in state prison.
"In my teen years, I went in a bad direction. I became a gang member...in and out of juvenile hall, and county jail," said Jacobs. "I was involved in a lot of gang violence, and got convicted."
He received a life without the possibility of parole sentence.
He heard about U.C. Santa Barbara’s Foundation in the Humanities Program.
"It was word of mouth. There was a handful of inmates that had taken it," said Jacobs. He said it was life changing for him.
It’s a program created by UCSB’s Interdisciplinary Humanities Center.
"It started when a student of mine, a former university student, became incarcerated," said Dr. Susan Derwin, who is Director of the Center, and a professor of comparative literature. "He wrote to me, and asked me if I would start some sort of humanities program to help create some kind of community among the people with whom he was incarcerated."
She took on the task. It took more than a year to develop a curriculum, with the program starting in 2016. There are three courses in the program.
Even though the inmate-students don’t get college credits for the program, it helps them in other ways. It stimulates them intellectually, and shows they are trying to better themselves, something parole boards look at closely.
Jacobs loved the fact the program is interactive, with graduate students and Dr. Derwin reviewing, and giving feedback on the essays they would write about what they had read.
Dr. Derwin says they have more than 120 people in the program right now, with hundreds more on waiting lists. The UCSB professor says she would like to see the university join others in offering some for-credit classes for those who are incarcerated.
She said the students tell her they are getting a lot from the program.
"They have strong communication skills now, they are reflecting on themselves, they are reading literature in the context in which it was written, but also how it relates to their own lives," said Derwin. "The words used by the students include that they are much more empathic, they feel they've accomplished things they have never been able to before, they are open to other points of view."
As for Jacobs, Governor Jerry Brown reduced his sentence before he left office in 2018. In addition to the UCSB program, Jacobs earned his AA behind bars, and went through a program to become an addiction counselor. Since being paroled in 2021, he’s working to help people kick their substance abuse problems. Jacobs says the UCSB program was a real source of happiness at a tough time in his life.
"They show you you are being heard," said Jacobs. "They help you to know you are participating, and doing well."
Jacobs says he still enjoys reading literary works, for intellectual stimulation, and for fun.
