It Grooms Prisoners for Success : Job training: A California Youth Authority program in Camarillo gives inmates the chance to learn--and be paid for--trades ranging from clerical work to pet grooming.

Tammy Walters, gregarious and pretty at 19, is learning an unlikely trade behind the razor-wire-topped fences of the California Youth Authority prison in Camarillo.

She and 17 other inmates are learning professional pet grooming.

The only industry of its kind in the state’s corrections system, pet grooming teaches inmates basic work skills and allows young offenders to relax by working with affectionate animals in an otherwise punitive environment, program instructor Joe Walker said.

“An institution is not set up to have somebody you can give love and caring to,” Walker said. “But with the animals, the kids can love them and stroke them and say things to the animals they would never say to another person.”

Despite the workload of the grooming class, inmates can use the time to breathe a little more easily, Walters said.

“With pets, you just don’t have the hassle of impressing a person or worrying about how you will come off,” said Walters, whose term is not up at the CYA until 1995. “The people here have say-so over my life. It can be really nerve-racking.”

The CYA facility, known as the Ventura School, sits under a canopy of trees among foothills and farmers’ fields northwest of the city. The locked brick dormitories house 851 male and female inmates who range in age from 14 to 23. The youths have been convicted of crimes from burglary to murder.

The youths, who also take classes at the facility toward high school diplomas and study for college degrees through correspondence courses, are eligible to apply for learning any of 10 trades during their incarceration.

Besides pet grooming, inmates can learn commercial sewing, clerical work, vending machine and appliance repair, drafting, nursing assistance, housekeeping and electronic assembly.

After training is completed, most inmates can sell their services to the outside world, earning anywhere from pennies an hour to as much as minimum wage for specialized work.

For example, one vocational program designed by Trans World Airways teaches inmates to operate computers as reservation agents. The inmates work from terminals at the CYA facility, and receive minimum wage for their work.

In one of the elite vocational training jobs, eligible inmates can learn to fight fires and earn $1 per hour for time on the fire line. Firefighting is available only to inmates with a demonstrated track record for hard work.

The inmates who learn to groom pets also can make decent pay if they do their jobs well, Walker said.

“A person who hustles can earn $80 a month,” Walker said. “That’s a lot more than, let’s say, 16 cents an hour they would get at most other institution industries.”

In addition, the inmates in Walker’s program learn to get to work on time, work a 40-hour week and get the jobs done in the time allotted. With up to 100 dogs a week coming through the classroom, the inmates also learn to deal with the public.

“If they do a good job, they get the positive strokes,” Walker said. “If they don’t do a good job they still have to take the animal back to the customer and take the chewing out.”

Donald and Gloria Bennett, a retired Camarillo couple, have taken their miniature schnauzer, Jack, to the Ventura School for grooming for the past six months.

“They do a good job and we like to help out,” Gloria Bennett said of the inmates in Walker’s class. “Besides, it suits our budget.”

For about $10, depending on the size of the animal and grooming needed, the pets are bathed, clipped and combed.

“It’s a great joy when you see them come in all tangled and dirty and they walk out of here looking like they went to a beauty parlor,” Walters said.

The groomers keep about half the fee. The balance goes to buy equipment and materials such as shampoo, towels and cages.

As one of the top students, Walters does bookkeeping for the grooming clinic on a computer, in addition to handling the animals. Walters also takes college correspondence courses at night and plans to learn how to book reservations for TWA. She talks about opening her own grooming shop when she completes her term.

Walters’ short-term goal is to get a job outside the prison handling animals in one of CYA’s work furlough programs.

The daytime work furlough program has worked for Matthew, 22, who declined to give his last name. Recently, he began working at the county’s Animal Regulation Department at Camarillo Airport.

Matthew said he never thought he would become an animal groomer. “I always thought I would be into something easier,” he said. “I used to do custodian work. It’s easier and the money is good. But there is no excitement there like with animals. And you’re always alone.”

Matthew said he plans to stay with the grooming trade when he leaves the Youth Authority next year. “It’s the only thing for me,” he said.

Kathy Jenks, the county’s animal regulation director, said Matthew and the 15 inmates who have preceded him working at the animal shelter have been true assets.

“If all of our employees were as willing as these kids are to work, we’d never have a problem,” she said.

Jenks puts the students through a full training program outside the prison walls. Those who pass earn certification as an animal control officer. She provides letters of recommendation for students who earn them and expects Matthew to be her next success.

“He is never content to just do the minimum,” Jenks said. “He always wants to get the job done right. That’s an ethic they learn in Joe Walker’s class.”

NEW LEADER

The California Youth Authority has named Manuel Carbajal superintendent of the Ventura School in Camarillo. B2