Jacobs followed her upset win in the Democratic primary by defeating Republican John Comerford of Palmer in a 62-38 split. WAMC spoke with her on election night from her victory party in North Adams about her plans to take over the seat of outgoing councilor and Democratic former Springfield Mayor Mary Hurley.
“Governor’s Council will probably be a kind of a slow build up back to the level they're at right now because a new administration coming in will reset a lot of things- Like, the judicial pipeline will reset,” explained Jacobs. “So, because of that, and while waiting for having the opportunity to weigh in on confirmations, my number one out of the gate is to continue to build on awareness for Governor's Council, of transparency for the work, by being very present in the 102 cities and towns across this district.”
Jacobs says she wants to use her role on the advisory body to bring more diversity to the parole board.
“In Springfield and Holyoke where there's very large, Spanish speaking populations, there's a challenge in serving that community well, both in terms of, Spanish speaking lawyers are very, almost nonexistent, and that access to interpreters is challenging, so that you have people in court whose lawyer doesn't speak Spanish, the judge doesn't speak Spanish and there's no interpreter available from the court,” she told WAMC. “So, someone like an aunt or cousin is doing the interpretation work, but because they're not actually trained in the legal issues, there's very easily a lot lost in the translation and they aren't able to get the best representation in their case, because of the language barrier.”
Jacobs is the first woman from the Berkshires to serve on the 8-member council and the first county resident to do so in decades.
“I really do encourage women especially, but our youth to think about these kinds of leadership and elected position roles and to not be afraid of jumping in and taking on the challenge,” she said. “It definitely is a challenge, but it's a fun one. And I gained so much of it myself that I’d love to be that inspiration for another generation of leaders to come to come forward and I'd love to be a mentor to some as well.”
One issue from the commonwealth’s sparsely populated westernmost region she plans to communicate to the governor: ongoing challenges around transportation.
“I was talking to someone tonight who works with drug counseling and recovery and has clients with judicial cases," said Jacobs. "From Berkshire County, they have to go to Hampden County to appear in court. In Berkshire County, we have people who struggle to go 15 minutes away to their doctor's office, but to get an hour and a half away to court on time is a real challenge. And so, I was asking, so, people who don't have a car is there a voucher to get onto a bus, is there a bus, is there a way to get easily accessible transportation to their court date? And the answer was no. And then also, there's some very specific things that are from Boston [that] kind of dictate the when and the how, and it doesn't factor in the challenges of Berkshire County residents in getting accessible transportation. It can create in a just a spiral effect of, you already have an issue or problem and getting on time to your court date becomes so challenging that if you fail to get there on time, it could turn into a much worse and spiraling problem.”
While she gears up for her time on the council to begin in earnest, Jacobs says she’s intent on continuing to do outreach in Western Massachusetts about the obscure body’s role in helping pick judicial nominations, the makeup of the commonwealth’s parole board, and beyond.
“I would love to see Governor's Council in civics classes across our state to understand this very important, but so little-known role," Jacobs told WAMC. "And we've been thinking, my campaign team- You know, we just never stop. We've been thinking about ways to introduce a unit into the curriculum for civics classes on Governor's Council, or how can we increase diversity in our legal community? How can we encourage youth? And how can we can support youth to consider careers in law and be our potential future judges in the state?”
