CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

New CSUSM program smooths students' path from prison to college

San Diego Union-Tribune - 11/10/2019

Martin Levya will never forget the first time he stepped foot on a college campus 12 years ago.

After walking away from two decades of life on the streets, drug and alcohol abuse and more than 10 years behind bars, Levya felt scared, out of place and way in over his head in academia.

Fortunately, he fought his instinct to flee the campus and today the Cal State San Marcos professor is committed to making that transition from prison to college an easier journey for others.

Levya, 47, is the founding coordinator of the new chapter of Project Rebound, which opened this fall at CSUSM. The program offers formerly incarcerated students support with admissions paperwork, parole and probation difficulties, academic advising, internships and job services, mentoring, resume-building, legal clinics, aid with records expungement and more.

But more than anything, Levya said, Project Rebound offers these students a supportive community space where they can begin to feel comfortable in their new environment.

"The goal for me is to help these students realize that this is their home and they belong here," Levya said, in an interview on campus last week. "Once you imagine yourself in a place, you become a part of that place."

Project Rebound was started at San Francisco State University in 1967 by longtime sociology professor John Irwin, who spent time in prison before moving into academia. In recent years, the program has expanded to nine California State University campuses, including San Diego State.

Project Rebound is state-funded because of its cost-effective results in reducing recidivism. A 2013 study by the Rand Organization found that students who participate in correctional education programs are 43 percent less likely to return to prison. The study also found that it costs $71,000 a year to house an inmate, but just $5,000 to put an incarcerated student through a year of community college.

While college is a proven method for reducing recidivism, it can be a difficult transition for adults who have spent many years isolated in the dehumanizing prison system.

"The biggest thing these students are looking for is visibility," Levya said. "I haven't met many of these folks with high self-esteem. They have low self-value and feel invisible. I tell them, 'let us help you be seen.' I let them know we understand you and what you're going through."

One of the new CSUSM chapter's first members is Rachael Jarrell of Oceanside. She transferred this fall from Palomar College and is working toward a degree in psychology. A recovering addict and single mom, she has been sober for seven years.

Jarrell said she sought out Project Rebound on her third day at CSUSM after learning from a professor that her community service learning hours would require a background check. Worried that she wouldn't be able to pass the screening because she served time behind bars, she went to Levya for help. Initially, Jarrell said her goal was to find out how to get her record expunged, but she found a welcoming space on campus that has encouraged her to expand her horizons.

"When you have a community, you're not alone. It's an oasis in the desert. I'm a first-generation college student and I've been fumbling my way through the process until now," she said. "Me feeling comfortable here makes me want to branch out even more. I want to join more campus activities and expand my dreams of what's possible in my career."

Levya didn't have the safety net of Project Rebound when he enrolled at Santa Barbara City College, five months after he left prison for the final time in 2007. So he had to create his own.

Levya had a hardscrabble childhood, growing up in a Chicano family bedeviled by drugs and alcohol the housing projects of west Santa Barbara. He was arrested at 13, developed addictions, left high school in ninth grade and spent the next 20 or so years bouncing in and out of homelessness, jails and prison.

It was during Levya's last stretch in prison, a three-year, second-strike term for a robbery conviction, when his life changed course. He was taken under the wing of an older, fatherly prisoner named "Mitch" who convinced Levya to embrace sobriety, read books, never return to prison once his term was up and use his time on the outside to help others.

That led him to Santa Barbara Community College, where he felt like an imposter.

"I was so terrified there that I thought I'd rather be in in prison," he said. "I looked around at the other students and realized I didn't walk like anyone else. I didn't talk like anyone else. I didn't even know what a syllabus was."

Then one day he noticed two other men on campus, who he recognized as fellow parolees. When he found out they were struggling with the same feelings of anxiety and isolation, he decided to start a support group for formerly incarcerated students at the college.

He named the program Transitions and over time it was developed into an introductory class, where parolees can learn how to take notes, operate a computer, study for tests and other basic life skills. Eighty-five percent of the students who complete the two-week class enroll as students at SBCC and many go on to transfer to four-year universities.

Between classes and running Transitions, Levya was able to create a new life and identify for himself. In 2009 he earned an associate degree in counseling and certificate in drug and alcohol treatment counseling. After a year of doing counseling and gang intervention work in the community, he went to Antioch University and earned a bachelor's degree in psychology.

In 2016, he moved to San Marcos, enrolled at CSUSM and brought the Transitions program along with him, establishing Transitions Collective chapters at CSUSM, Palomar College and MiraCosta College. After he graduated from CSUSM last year with his master's degree in sociology, Levya was hired to the university's faculty. He is now in his third semester teaching sociology, criminology and justice studies.

Last year, Transitions Collective members surveyed students at CSUSM and found that 8 percent those surveyed had been incarcerated, but a surprising 71.8 percent of those surveyed said they have been impacted by the prison system, meaning a family member or loved one has been behind bars. Levya said these students are also encouraged to join Project Rebound.

Some day, Levya said he would like to see the Project Rebound chapter at CSUSM become a major service hub for parolees throughout North County. For now, the program operates from a small office on the first floor of the Kellogg Library.

Students use the space to do homework, hang out, work on their resumes and talk to Levya about other resources available to them. Every time a student collects their books and leaves for class, Levya sends them off with the supportive phrase "study hard" or "make good choices."

"We encourage these students to get good grades, but we don't require it," he said. "We do expect them to give 100 percent effort and we'll work on the rest together."

So far this semester, the chapter has enrolled nine members. The youngest is 23, the oldest is Jarrell, who is 44. She has volunteered to share her experience to at-risk high school students in hopes of encouraging them to follow the path toward higher education. She said Levya is her inspiration for wanting to help others.

"He has overcome these challenges and he's running back into the building to save other people from the fire," she said. "I want to do that. It's really important for my self-esteem to use what I have learned to help others."

___

(c)2019 The San Diego Union-Tribune

Visit The San Diego Union-Tribune at www.sandiegouniontribune.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.