San Quentin inmates find new purpose by training future service dogs

MARIN COUNTY, Calif. (KGO) -- Jorge Ramirez has known nothing but prison walls for over 20 years. He has been incarcerated since he was 16. He thought the rest of life would be stuck in a cell.

"I was lost," he said. "I made decisions when I was young. I didn't realize the effect the childhood trauma would have on me."

If you ask him, he would say he is no longer lost thanks to a program at San Quentin that allows him to train future service dogs.

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"You pet those dogs - it changes you," he said. "It's a great opportunity for me to help out and give back to my society that I took so much from."

Santa Rosa-based Canine Companions for Independence has a program with San Quentin that takes puppies and lets inmates train them their basic commands. After a year of training, they go back to Santa Rosa to get more advanced training to become a service dog.

"We've found that our dogs have a better chance of becoming full service dogs when they go through programs like this," said James Dern, CCI's program director. "The level of training that these puppies have received here is nothing short of perfection."

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It started a year ago with two puppies. Now, it expanded to six puppies. CCI says they got a grant from the state they hope will expand it in the coming years. CCI has several of these programs with detention centers around the country. They say it helps the inmates and leads to a lower rate of recidivism.

Jorge says, thanks to the puppy raising program, he sees a future beyond the walls of San Quentin.

"Today, I am a better brother. I am a husband. I am about to have a kid," he said. "There is everything to be proud of."

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