From condemned man to dog trainer: Man gets second chance with help from former California Gov. Jerry Brown
Bradley Arrowood's journey to own a successful service dog training business started when he was given a second chance at life. After spending 25 years in prison, he has been working to redeem himself after former California Governor Jerry Brown commuted his sentence in 2017.
"There are so many people that come back out or could come back out that educate themselves and they don't get the same breaks I got," Arrowood said.
Brown, now retired and living on his Northern California ranch, understands the concept of second chances. However, during his tenure as the youngest governor in the nation in 1974, he was tough on crime and implemented the state's first mandatory sentencing law, which led to the passing of similar laws.
Lenore Anderson, the president of the Alliance for Safety and Justice, advocates for criminal justice reform and highlights that California played a significant role in the tough-on-crime movement. Brown admits that the result of his policies was an increase in the number of prisons from 12 to 33, with the number of incarcerated individuals rising from 25,000 to 170,000.
This legacy directly impacted Arrowood when he was sentenced 10 years after Brown left office as governor in 1983 to life in prison with no possibility of parole for killing a man he claimed had an affair with his wife.
Arrowood's sentence really began to impact him when he realized his daughter was placed in foster care. It was after this that Arrowood said he found his purpose.
"I wanted her not to be ashamed of who I was. I had to be an example, even though there was no chance of me getting out. I wasn't able to tell her that I wasn't getting out ever because I didn't want to destroy any hope that she had," he said.
After becoming a model prisoner, Arrowood was given a new opportunity through the prison's program called 'Paws for Life', which involved training dogs to be adoptable and fit for service. The program initially aimed to give dogs from high-kill shelters a second chance, but it also had a profound impact on the prisoners. Arrowood also trains other dogs, including "CBS Mornings" lead national correspondent David Begnaud's dog, Paddington.
"Those dogs gave us back our humanity. It brought emotion back into prison. To come back out here. If it hadn't been for that, the dogs, I wouldn't have been able to function," he said.
In 2010, Jerry Brown was elected governor for a second time, and by then, he had a change of heart about the heavy sentencing laws he once championed as a young governor. However, it was not just his conscience that led to this change, but also the federal courts, which had ordered California to reduce the overpopulation in its prisons. Without this nudge, it would have been challenging for the state to accomplish as much as it did. At that time, California's overcrowded prisons included around 4,000 inmates, including Arrowood, who had no possibility of parole.
The warden highly valued the dog training program, and he recommended to the governor, the only person with the power to commute an inmate's sentence, that Arrowood's case be reviewed. Although Brown did not free Arrowood directly, he offered him the opportunity to prove himself to the board. In 2018, when Arrowood appeared before the parole board after serving 25 years in prison, the Los Angeles district attorney objected to his release, citing his "especially heinous" offense and history of drug abuse, which made him an "unreasonable risk." Despite these objections, the parole board unanimously agreed to release Arrowood, noting that he had a good background to succeed on the outside.
When Brown and Arrowood met, Arrowood shared that he had gone to a transition home to readjust to life after 25 years in prison. He then attended California State University, Los Angeles as a full-time student and graduated with a bachelor's degree in organizational and applied communications. He also got married to a woman he had known since they were 8 years old and started his own dog-training business.
Brown asked for his thoughts on what should be done with the prisons.
"I think we need to kind of go back a step, to where it used to be that people get a chance to earn their way out," Arrowood said. "Not necessarily just get let out without any skills ... being able to move on and go right back to what they knew before."
Before they left, there was another opportunity for behavior correction, but this time it was for the governor's own dog. Brown suggested that they train the dog, to which Arrowood confidently responded that he could work "wonders in just a couple of weeks."
In 2023, Arrowood purchased a home on a 2-acre property, ideal for his service dogs.
Arrowood is set to launch "Lovie's Dog Foundation," a nonprofit aimed at rescuing dogs and training them as service animals, in January. These trained dogs will be given to those in need but unable to afford them.
"We're giving back. We're helping dogs, dogs change each one of us in some way, um, of bringing back out humanity and it teaches us to care for something other than ourselves," he said.
Arrowood's transformation extends beyond himself. He mentors others like Ronnie, a former prisoner serving as a kennel assistant and trainer apprentice, and Lorenzo Flores, his No. 2 service dog trainer.
"In coming from a place of hopelessness, that, that we all experienced that. And to overcome that, you know, to, to have all that faith for many years and to realize, Hey man, this is not the life I want to live," said Ronnie.
"I think everybody should look back and see what is it that they can improve on themselves? Because that's what I do every day. I want to improve myself as I go," said Lorenzo Flores.
