The McKinzie Annex has had a partnership with Del Mar College to help inmates prepare for a better life outside of the jail.
“ The more you stay busy the less you stay off the streets and to me that’s what it’s all about,” Alex Aparicio an inmate who has been at the jail for three months said.
Currently, there are about four inmates taking the course that lasts six weeks.
Aparicio said they have been learning how to build sheds from the ground up and said this opportunity could help change someone’s life.
Originally outside of the jail he worked as a barber and tattoo artist.
” This is actually a really good skill to pick up, I could teach my sons and help. keep them off the streets, because you know that’s the goal,” he added.
Aparicio has seven kids and said he is looking forward to now teaching his boys what he has learned.
For three years the jail has teamed up with Del Mar College continuing education program — they focus on teaching the inmates about construction skills
“We give them basic construction skills, they learn about how to draw a plan, the vocabulary, the job site safety and actually getting out there and constructing something,” Sheriff JC Hooper said.