Colorado Prison Leather Shop Earns Apprenticeship Certification, Offering Inmates Skilled Trade Training at Fremont Correctional Center
Why It Matters
In Colorado, a leather shop inside the Fremont Correctional Center in Florence is offering incarcerated individuals something rare behind prison walls: structured vocational training, a strong work ethic, and a path toward employment upon release. The program represents a broader push within the state’s corrections system to use skilled trades as a tool for rehabilitation — and, potentially, reduced recidivism.
With Colorado’s cost of living among the highest in the nation, giving released inmates marketable, certified skills could reduce the burden on state social services while helping former offenders become self-sufficient taxpayers rather than repeat clients of the criminal justice system.
What Happened
The leather shop at the Fremont Correctional Center has recently been certified as a registered apprenticeship program by the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE), according to a labor department spokesperson. The certification formalizes what has been an informal but high-quality craft training operation for decades.
Under the new program structure, inmates who complete 4,000 hours of training will receive a certificate recognized by employers — a credential that signals discipline, consistency, and professional-level skill in leatherworking. Two longtime shop workers, Jeremy Hodges and Freddy Aguilera-Zamora, are among the first inmates set to be certified as “journeymen,” the term CDLE uses for trainers authorized to supervise apprentices.
Hodges is serving a 40-year sentence for second-degree murder. Aguilera-Zamora is serving 48 years for first-degree murder. Both men have spent years refining their craft inside the shop, which produces custom saddles, belts, purses, dog leashes, and other hand-crafted leather goods.
By the Numbers
- 4,000 hours of training required to earn the new apprenticeship certificate
- ~20 inmates work in the leather shop at any given time
- $4,000+ retail price for custom saddles now produced by the shop, up from $1,500 saddles in earlier years
- 1983 — the year the leather shop originally opened, initially at the Buena Vista Correctional Center
- 4 of the country’s 45 Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Programs (PIECPs) are located in Colorado, allowing participating inmates to earn prevailing wages through private-sector partnerships
A Culture Built on Standards
The leather shop does not recruit based on prior skills. Workers look instead for qualities: motivation, respect, emotional stability, and a strong work ethic. With an open tool bench stocked with knives, blades, rotary cutters, chisels, and hole punches, shop veterans say they cannot afford disruptions.
“We can’t have issues, basically,” Aguilera-Zamora said, in remarks reported by The Colorado Sun. “We have too much to lose.”
Hodges, who was a carpenter before his incarceration, now leads the tooling section of the shop — carving intricate floral patterns and decorative stamps into finished leather goods. He described the work as meditative, and said it demands a focused, disciplined mindset. “It kind of amplifies what state of mind you’re in,” he said in remarks reported by The Colorado Sun.
The shop relocated from Buena Vista Correctional Center to Sterling Correctional Facility in 2021, then to Fremont in 2024. Six members of the original crew — known among inmates as the “Bewnie” crew — have remained with the shop through both transfers.
Zoom Out
Vocational training programs inside correctional facilities have gained renewed attention nationally as states grapple with high recidivism rates and prison overcrowding. Skilled trades certification — in leatherworking, welding, construction, and similar fields — offers a market-based solution that aligns with conservative principles of individual responsibility and self-reliance.
Colorado’s leather shop recently donated a saddle to History Colorado as part of the state’s 150th anniversary of statehood commemoration, raising the program’s public profile. As Colorado continues to navigate complex law enforcement and public safety debates, programs that reduce re-offense rates through employment readiness represent a cost-effective alternative to continued incarceration.
The PIECP federal designation, which allows the Fremont shop to partner with private-sector clients and pay prevailing wages, is one of only 45 such programs operating nationwide — a model that emphasizes market participation over government dependency.
What’s Next
With the apprenticeship certification now in place, the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment is expected to begin formally registering qualifying inmates as they complete the required training hours. Hodges and Aguilera-Zamora are positioned to serve as the program’s first certified journeymen supervisors, training the next generation of leatherworkers inside the facility.
Officials have not announced whether the apprenticeship model will be expanded to other vocational programs within Colorado’s correctional system, but the leather shop’s certification sets a precedent for structuring prison labor around credentialed, transferable skills.