Firefighters are racing to contain the fires continue to devastate Los Angelesputting their lives in danger as flames reduce entire neighborhoods to smoldering ruins.
Among them there are some 950 inmates from the California prison system who help fight fires for about $10 a day.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) Conservation Camp Program (Fire). allows incarcerated people to shorten their sentences by working as firefighters—not an uncommon practice in the United States. They make up about 30 percent of California’s firefighting force, he notes the LA Times.
“Since Friday morning, firefighters from Fire Station 939 have been working around the clock to cut fire lines and remove fuel from behind structures to slow the spread of the fire,” a fire update said. . California Corrections Instagram page.
According to reports, nearly 1,000 incarcerated firefighters in California are currently fighting wildfires in the state. Some have criticized the practice because of the low pay for firefighters, but Royal Ramey, a former inmate and co-founder of the Forest and Fire Recruiting Program, says the program helps create career opportunities for inmates after release.
But the program is not without controversy. The inmates are paid little for the dangerous and difficult work, and critics have accused the state of exploit a vulnerable population. Inmates are paid up to $10.24 US each day, with additional money for 24-hour shifts, according to the department.
Firefighters with the LA Fire Department make from $85,784 to $124,549 US per year, according to the department’s website. Meanwhile, private firefighters are also hired by some rich owners willing to peel like as much as $2,000 per hour.
At least 24 people died in the fires that began on January 7. Officials said that at least 12,300 structures were damaged or destroyed.
Dangerously strong winds were expected to resume Monday in Los Angeles, potentially hampering efforts to extinguish the lingering wildfires that have leveled entire neighborhoods.
“To everyone who doesn’t think our incarcerated brothers and sisters shouldn’t be able to vote or live in your neighborhoods, remember who was on your hill to save your home,” commented one Instagram user. update posted by California Corrections.
“Los Angeles is being saved by the people they shut down,” added another person another California Corrections post.
Complicated ethics
According to Smithsonian Magazinefour inmate firefighters have died on the line in recent years. One person was hit by a rock, another was killed by a falling tree, another was killed by a chainsaw, and one prisoner died of heart failure on a training hike.
In 2018, Time magazine reported that inmates fighting fires are more likely to be injured than professional firefighters — more than four times more likely to incur “object-related injuries,” and eight times more likely to be injured by smoke inhalation .
Some have question ethics of the choice of volunteers for the program, given the advantages include reducing your sentence and cancellation of the criminal case.
CDCR continues to increase the number of incarcerated firefighters it assists @CAL_FIRE in Southern CA. As of Friday morning, Fire Camp 939 firefighters are working to cut fire lines and remove fuel to slow the fire’s spread, including 110 support staff. pic.twitter.com/rkQu3hWXMm
“I understand the argument that can be made that the only reason people volunteer to go to the Camp of Fire to experience those humane conditions is because the conditions behind the walls are inhumane, and that’s probably true, and I understand that argument, and in that sense, it is abuse.” TikToker Matthew Hahna former prisoner who worked in a fire crew, said in a video last week.
But he added that it is still one of the highest paying jobs in the prison system and said the camps “were the best place to do time anywhere in the entire prison system.”
“We had more freedom when we were in Fire Camp, we were outside the walls of a prison. We went into the communities and out into nature during the day,” Hahn said.
Other inmates involved in the program described it as a positive experience. In an essay for non-profits Marshall Project, inmate David Desmond called it “the best job I’ve ever had.”
“Nobody treated us like inmates; we were firefighters,” Desmond wrote in the 2023 article.
Royal Ramey, a former inmate and co-founder of the Forestry and Fire Recruiting Program, told CBC News Network the fire camp program has other advantages, including creating career opportunities for inmates after release.
“You have better food, you can visit the public environment, dorm life, and you’re also out in the community, doing projects of some sort, and eligible for time off,” said Ramey.
“But for me, it exposed me to a career that I now love.”
How the program works
California’s Conservation Camp (Fire) Program has been around since World War II, he said Smithsonian Magazinealthough its roots in prison work go back nearly a century.
The CDCR, in cooperation with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the Los Angeles County Fire Department, operates about 35 so-called fire camps throughout the state. Two of the camps are for incarcerated women. They are all considered minimum security facilities, notes the department’s website.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said fire crews and water tankers were positioned in strategic locations as officials prepared for what forecasters warned would be powerful and dangerous winds.
Detainee volunteers must meet certain requirements to protect public safety. It must be classified as the lowest security status, and anyone convicted of rape or sexual offenses, arson, or with a history of escape is not eligible.
Most incarcerated fire crew members earn two days off their sentence for each day they serve on the crew.
Similar programs exist in other states. In Washington, Crew members learn how to conduct prescribed burns, handle hazardous equipment and ensure that fires that have been contained remain so.
And The British Columbia Fire Suppression Program allows specially trained inmates to set up and clear base camps of fire, maintain an inventory of supplies, maintain camp equipment and facilities, and test and repair equipment.
“We’re back to work in prison”
However, as the Marshall Project reported on Saturday, the ethics are “complicated”.
Speaking on the independent news program Democracy Now On Monday, LA-based activist Sonali Kolhatkar said the fire camp program is indicative of the ways “our spending priorities are so skewed.”
“Yes, it’s true that our fire departments are severely understaffed. So instead of us training more non-incarcerated people or, for that matter frankly, allowing incarcerated people to simply not be incarcerated … let’s get back to the work of prison,” he said. .
“Incarcerated firefighters are trying to keep us safe, but they themselves are part of the architecture of violence, and they are also victims of the architecture of violence.”
But Joshua Daniel Bligh, in a 2016 post on the International Wildland Fire Association website, said his time as an incarcerated firefighter in Oregon allowed him to learn valuable skills and feel like he was giving back to society.
“When I feel the indignation and shock in the faces of the contract crew who hear how little we make for the work we do, I remember that I could be sitting in a prison cell in the penitentiary,” he wrote.
https://i.cbc.ca/1.7429921.1736793729!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/16x9_1180/inmate-firefighter.jpg?im=Resize%3D620
2025-01-08 14:51:00
