Firefighters struggle to contain the wildfires that continue to ravage Los Angeles, putting their lives at risk as the flames reduce entire neighborhoods to smoldering ruins.
Among them are about 950 inmates from the California prison system who are helping fight the fires for about $10 a day.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR)’s Conservation (Fire) Camp program allows inmates to shorten their sentences by working as firefighters – a practice not uncommon in the United States. They make up about 30 percent of California’s wildfirefighting workforce, the LA Times notes.
“Since Friday morning, 939 Fire Camp firefighters have been working around the clock to cut fire lines and remove fuel from behind buildings to slow the spread of the fire,” said an update on the California Corrections Instagram page.
Nearly 1,000 firefighters incarcerated in California are reportedly currently battling wildfires in the state. Some have criticized the practice because of low pay for firefighters, but Royal Ramey, a former prisoner and co-founder of the Forestry and Fire Recruitment Program, says the program helps create career opportunities for inmates after they are released.
But the program is not without controversy. Inmates receive little pay for dangerous and difficult work, and critics accuse the state of exploiting a vulnerable population. According to the department, inmates receive up to $10.24 per day, with additional money for 24-hour shifts.
LA Fire Department firefighters earn between $85,784 and $124,549 per year, according to the department’s website. Private firefighters are now being hired by some wealthy property owners who are willing to spend up to $2,000 an hour.
At least 24 people died in the fires that broke out on January 7th. Officials said at least 12,300 buildings were damaged or destroyed.
Dangerously strong winds were expected again in Los Angeles on Monday, potentially hampering efforts to put out stubborn wildfires that have leveled entire neighborhoods.
“To all the people out there who don’t think our formerly incarcerated brothers and sisters shouldn’t be able to vote or live in your neighborhood: remember who on your hill saved your house,” one Instagram user commented on an update posted by California Corrections.
“Los Angeles is being saved by the people they locked up,” another person added in another California Corrections post.
Complicated ethics
According to Smithsonian Magazine, four prison firefighters have died on line duty in recent years. One person was hit by a boulder, another was killed by a falling tree, another was killed by a chainsaw, and an inmate died of heart failure while on a training hike.
In 2018, Time magazine reported that inmates who fight wildfires are injured at higher rates than professional firefighters – more than four times more likely to suffer “object-related injuries” and more likely to be injured from smoke inhalation. is eight times higher.
Some have questioned the ethics of the decision to volunteer for the program, as benefits include reduced sentences and expungement of criminal records.
CDCR continues to increase the number of incarcerated firefighters assisting @CAL_FIRE in Southern California. On Friday morning, 939 Fire Camp firefighters worked to cut fire lines and remove fuel to slow the spread of the fire, including 110 support personnel. pic.twitter.com/rkQu3hWXMm
“I understand the argument that can be made that the only reason people volunteer to go to the fire camp to experience these humane conditions is because the conditions behind the walls are inhumane, and that is likely true, and I understand that argument and in it. “Sensibly, it’s offensive,” TikToker Matthew Hahn, a former inmate who worked at a fire department, 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 are “the best place to spend time in the entire prison system.”
“We had more freedom when we were in the fire camp, we were outside the prison walls. We went out into the communities and into nature during the day,” Hahn said.
Other inmates involved in the program have described it as a positive experience. In an essay for the nonprofit Marshall Project, inmate David Desmond called it “the best job I ever had.”
“Nobody treated us like prisoners; we were firefighters,” Desmond wrote in the 2023 article.
Royal Ramey, a former inmate and co-founder of the Forestry and Fire Recruitment Program, told CBC News Network that the fire camp program offers other benefits, including creating career opportunities for inmates upon release.
“You get better food, you get to visit in a public setting, you get to live in dorms, and you also get to be out in the community doing some sort of project and you’re entitled to time off,” Ramey said.
“But for me, it opened up a career that I love now.”
How the program works
According to Smithsonian Magazine, California’s Conservation (Fire) Camp program has been around since World War II, although its roots in prison labor go back nearly a century.
The CDCR, in collaboration with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the Los Angeles County Fire Department, operates approximately 35 so-called fire camps throughout the state. Two of the camps are for incarcerated women. They are all considered minimum security facilities, the department’s website says.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said firefighters and water tankers will be stationed in strategic locations as officials prepare for strong, dangerous winds that forecasters have predicted.
Voluntary inmates must meet certain requirements to ensure public safety. They must be placed in the lowest security status, and people convicted of rape or sexual offenses, arson or a history of absconding are not eligible.
Most incarcerated firefighters receive two days of impunity for every day they serve in the fire department.
Similar programs exist in other states. In Washington, crew members learn how to conduct prescribed burns, handle hazardous equipment and ensure fires remain contained.
And British Columbia’s firefighting program allows specially trained inmates to set up and dismantle firefighting base camps, maintain an inventory of supplies, maintain camp equipment and facilities, and test and repair equipment.
“We turn to prison work”
Nevertheless, the ethical principles are “complicated,” as the Marshall Project reported on Saturday.
Speaking on the independent news program Democracy Now on Monday, Los Angeles-based activist Sonali Kolhatkar said the fire camp program was an indication of how “our spending priorities are so skewed.”
“Yes, it is true that our fire departments are severely understaffed. So instead of training more non-incarcerated people or, let’s be honest, simply not allowing incarcerated people to be incarcerated, we turn to prison work,” she said.
“Incarcerated firefighters are trying to protect us, but they themselves are part of the architecture of violence and they are also the victims of the architecture of violence.”
But Joshua Daniel Bligh said in a 2016 post on the International Association of Wildland Fire website that 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 outrage and shock on the faces of contract workers as they hear how little we earn for our work, I remember that I could have been sitting in a jail cell in prison,” he wrote.
