Nearly 1,000 inmates help fight LA wildfires. Ethics are complex
Firefighters race to prevent wildfires continues to devastate Los Angelesthey risk their lives as the flames turn entire neighborhoods into burning ruins.
There are some among them 950 inmates from the California prison system Those who help fight fires for about $10 a day.
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) Conservation (fire) camp program allows incarcerated people 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 wildfire-fighting forces, he notes LA Times.
“As of Friday morning, Camp 939 Firefighters have been cutting fire lines and removing fuel from behind structures to slow the spread of the fire.” California Corrections Instagram page.
According to reports, about 1,000 firefighters currently incarcerated in California are fighting wildfires in the state. Some have criticized the practice for underpaying firefighters, but Royal Ramey, a former inmate and co-founder of the Forestry and Fire Recruitment Program, says the program helps create career opportunities for inmates upon release.
But the program is not without controversy. Prisoners are underpaid for dangerous and difficult work, and critics have accused the situation of being so exploit vulnerable populations. Inmates are paid up to $10.24 per day for 24-hour shifts, according to the department.
Firefighters with the LA Fire Department Earn $85,784 to $124,549 a year, according to the department’s website. Meanwhile, private firefighters are also employed by some wealthy property owners ready to bark up to $2,000 per hour.
At least 24 people died in the fires that started on January 7. Officials said at least 12,300 structures were damaged or destroyed.
Dangerously strong winds are expected to return to Los Angeles on Monday, which could hamper efforts to put out stubborn wildfires that have ravaged entire neighborhoods.
“To all the people who don’t think our formerly incarcerated brothers and sisters can’t vote or live in your neighborhoods, remember who’s on your hill saving your home,” one Instagram user commented. Update posted by California Corrections.
“Los Angeles is saved by the people they lock down,” another person added another California Corrections post.
Complex ethics
according to Smithsonian MagazineIn recent years, four inmate firefighters have died on duty. One was killed by a stone, one by a falling tree, one by a chain, and one prisoner died of heart failure during training.
in 2018 Time magazine reported that inmates fighting wildfires were more likely to be harmed than professional firefighters—more than four times more likely to suffer “object-related injuries” and eight times more likely to be injured by smoke inhalation.
There are some questioned his ethics the option to volunteer for the program, a reduction in your sentence based on benefits, and expungement of criminal record.
CDCR continues to increase the number of inmate firefighters it assists @CAL_FIRE in Southern CA. As of Friday morning, 939 Camp Fire firefighters, including 110 support crews, were working to remove fuel to cut fire lines and slow the fire’s spread. pic.twitter.com/rkQu3hWXMm
“The only reason people volunteer to go to Camp Fire to experience these humane conditions is because the conditions behind the walls are inhumane, and that’s probably true, and I understand that argument. abuse in the sense of” TikToker Matthew Hahnthe ex-prisoner, who works for the fire brigade, said in a video last week.
But he added that it’s still one of the highest-paying jobs in the prison system, saying the camps are “the best place to spend time anywhere in the entire prison system.”
“When we were at Camp Fire, we had more freedom, we were outside the walls of the prison. During the day we went out into communities and nature,” Hahn said.
Other inmates who participated in the program rated it as a positive experience. In an essay for non-profit Marshall Project, Inmate David Desmond called it “the best job I’ve ever done”.
“Nobody treated us like prisoners; we were firefighters,” Desmond said in a 2023 article.
Royal Ramey, a former inmate and co-founder of the Forestry and Fire Recruitment Program, told CBC News Network that the campfire program has other benefits, including creating career opportunities for inmates upon release.
“You get better food, you live in public places, you live in a dormitory, you’re also in the community, you do some kind of projects and you’re fit for recreation,” Ramey said.
“But for me, it introduced me to a career that I now love.”
How the program works
California’s Conservation (Fire) Camp Program has been around since World War II Smithsonian Magazinealthough its roots date back nearly a century to prison labor.
CDCR operates approximately 35 fire camps across the state in partnership with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Two of the camps are for women prisoners. All of them are considered minimum security facilities, it is mentioned on the website of the department.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said fire crews and water tankers were being deployed in strategic locations as officials prepared for what forecasters warned would be strong and dangerous winds.
Prison volunteers must meet certain requirements to protect public safety. They must be classified as the lowest security status, and anyone with a history of rape or sex crimes, arson or escape is ineligible.
Most incarcerated fire crew members get two days off their sentences for every day they serve on the crew.
Similar programs exist in other states. in washington, crew members learn how to conduct prescribed burns, operate hazardous equipment, and ensure contained fires stay that way.
And British Columbia’s fire suppression program allows specially trained inmates to set up and tear down fire base camps, take inventory of supplies, maintain camp equipment and facilities, and test and repair equipment.
“We turn to prison labor”
Like again The Marshall Project reported Saturday, the ethics are “complex.”
He speaks on an independent news program Democracy Now On Monday, L.A.-based activist Sonali Kolhatkar said the campfire program was indicative of the ways in which “our spending priorities are so skewed.”
“Yes, we’re severely understaffed in our fire departments. So instead of training people who aren’t incarcerated, or frankly, allowing inmates to simply not be incarcerated, we’re turning to … prison labor,” he said. .
“Incarcerated firefighters are trying to keep us safe, but they themselves are part of an architecture of violence, and they are victims of that architecture.”
But Joshua Daniel Bligh, in 2016 A 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 the community.
“When I saw the anger and shock on the faces of the contract staff when they heard how little we were paid for the work we did, I remember I could have been sitting in a prison cell in a penitentiary,” he said.
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