More than 900 inmates have battled the deadly flames that have ripped through the Los Angeles area. They are “working to cut fire lines and remove fuel to slow fire spread,” according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The state has long relied on incarcerated people to help fight wildfires in California, which are burning hotter and faster as the climate crisis intensifies.
Here is an explanation of the program, which traces its origins to the 19th century.
How much are inmates paid?
Firefighting prisoners are members of California’s conservation fire camp program, which is operated by the corrections department, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
They earn a maximum of $10.24 per day, plus an additional $1 an hour during emergencies, according to the corrections department.
Criminal justice advocates say that California’s fire camp program — like other prison labor programs — exploits incarcerated people.
The incarcerated firefighters are paid less than minimum wage, which is $16.50 an hour in California. They also earn much less than the state’s seasonal firefighters, who can make a monthly base salary of more than $4,600, and the firefighters employed by the city of Los Angeles, whose salaries start at over $85,000 a year.
Most of the prisoners also earn time credits: Two days are removed from their sentences for every day they serve in a fire crew.
How do the camps work?
Prisoners participate in four days of classroom training and field training. They support emergency workers and the state and participate in service work. Unlike some other prison work programs in California, they volunteer and cannot be forced to join.
They have to be deemed “physically and mentally fit for vigorous activity” to participate, and cannot have been convicted of “rape and other sex offenses, arson, and escape history,” according to the corrections department.
Volunteers must have minimum custody status, or the lowest security classification, based on their “sustained good behavior in prison, ability to follow rules, and participation in rehabilitative programming,” the corrections department said.
Do they use different techniques?
Incarcerated firefighters wear distinctive orange firefighting gear and do not use hoses or water to fight fires.
Instead, they use “hand tools to aid in fire suppression” and also work as support staff for other emergency workers, the department said. Working as support staff, they earn a one-to-one time credit — a day off their sentences for each day spent helping crews.
Is fire camp seen as job training?
The corrections department describes the 35 camps as rehabilitation programs.
It says that participants have been employed as firefighters by government agencies and that the fire camps create paths to emergency response certifications after incarceration.
Some former prisoner-firefighters have told The New York Times that they learned useful skills, although they were frustrated by the low pay. Some told The Times that they did not expect to be hired as firefighters after they were released, fearing stigma and other challenges.
