In this installment of Unlocking History, Inside CDCR takes a closer look at teachers and vocational instructors who made a difference in the department.
Manuel Jacobs establishes school at Folsom State Prison
Manuel Joseph Jacobs, a math instructor from Berkeley High School, founded what would become the Greystone Adult School at Folsom State Prison in 1915. After his death in 1951 at the age of 73, he was hailed as a “pioneer in prison rehabilitation programs,” according to the Oakland Tribune.
His passion to educate prisoners began with support from Warden JJ Smith, allowing him to establish a twice-weekly class behind the walls of the prison, without pay.
The state supplied basic textbooks, but the rest of the materials were donated or “gotten together with great difficulty,” according to one 1916 news article.
Jacobs’ school began with 23 students. Within three years, the classes had grown to 300 students.
He not only taught some of the classes but also acted as principal, hand-picking incarcerated students to act as instructors. He was the only outside teacher at the prison.
“Classes are conducted in mathematics, Spanish, Italian, typewriting, stenography and English. About one half the total number of prisoners are in the school. Of course, their work is voluntary. The state furnishes free textbooks, but they are in many cases unfitted to the purpose. Other books, supplies, papers, magazines, etc., are donated,” reported the Riverside Daily Press, May 10, 1916.
By 1917, Warden Smith and Jacobs requested $10,000 for the construction and equipping of an actual school on prison grounds. By 1922, with the prison school well established, he moved on to focus on his college engineering and teaching career. He finally retired from public service in 1945, six years before he passed away.
Unfortunately, no photographs of Manuel Jacobs could be found in CDCR’s archives.
Frank Gibson: Education salvages otherwise wasted futures
One education administrator began his career as a vocational instructor with the department.
In 1982, The Manteca Bulletin published a feature article on Frank Gibson, administrator of education at Deuel Vocational Institution, a post he had for 14 years.
After graduating from California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, he taught vocational agricultural in public schools.
In 1956, during a sabbatical to serve as a dairy consultant in his hometown of Susanville, he was offered a job with the state prison system as an agricultural instructor. He jumped at the chance and never looked back.
Gibson said correctional educators strive to turn out literate people with marketable skills. He said education staff meet the incarcerated students at their academic level, providing classes ranging from elementary grades through college.
“They’ve had so many poor experiences in school, some of them stay away for fear they would fail again,” Gibson said.
He firmly held to the belief that men who desired change could find it through education. He said the same thing a decade earlier when interviewed by the Tracy Press, Dec. 22, 1971.
“(What bothers me is the) apathy of the public who think these men don’t deserve this training. Our hope is that if we give them the best there is, we can salvage many lives that otherwise would be wasted,” he said.
Gibson’s words sound more like today’s rehabilitation efforts.
Learn more about what’s offered through the Division of Rehabilitative Programs.
By Don Chaddock, Inside CDCR editor
A Day in the Life of Folsom teacher Linda Nielsen
In this CDCR Time Capsule story published in 2002, we revisit a Day in the Life of Folsom State Prison Teacher Linda Nielsen. Read the story.
Learn more about California prison history.
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