The Hidden Economic Forces Behind California’s Use of Inmates as Firefighters | Global News Avenue

Wildfires sweeping through the Los Angeles area are destroying property and claiming lives. They have also reignited the debate over whether it is right to force prisoners to work for pittances.

More than 1,000 California prisoners have been involved in fighting wildfires, a controversial practice that dates back to 1915 and is the result of the complex intersection of public safety, labor economics and criminal justice.

How many inmates are fighting Los Angeles wildfires?

About 9,000 firefighters have been deployed to fight the Los Angeles wildfires. Just over 1,000 of them are incarcerated, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCR) says inmates joining the fire department are voluntary and must meet strict standards. Requirements include physical and mental health, good behavior, eight years or less remaining on the sentence, being considered a low security risk and no convictions for sex crimes or arson.

Why does California use inmate firefighters?

While California promotes the program as a path to recovery, the economics tell a different story. Los Angeles Fire Department firefighters make between $85,784 and $124,549 per year with benefits, but inmate firefighters only receive $5.80 to $10.24 per day, plus an extra $1 per hour during emergencies. That’s well below California’s minimum wage of $16.50 an hour.

Program helps fill critical staffing gaps, especially as California faces longer, more destructive fire seasons climate change. Inmate firefighters often take on some of the most challenging jobs – hiking to remote areas beyond the reach of fire trucks or helicopters, cutting fire lines by hand and clearing brush to slow the spread of fires.

This has wide-ranging implications: When states can rely on a very low-cost inmate workforce during emergencies, it may reduce incentives to hire and appropriately compensate additional professional firefighters, affecting wages across the industry.

When did California start using inmate firefighters?

In 1915, the government approved the first fire training camp for incarcerated people in California. The program expanded in the 1940s as many firefighters were drafted to fight in World War II. Today, CDCR, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and the Los Angeles County Fire Department operate 35 conservation camps in 25 counties.

How does this benefit inmate firefighters?

Inmates who volunteer to work in the fire service receive a variety of benefits in addition to their daily wages. For every day they spend on the fire line, they get two days off their sentence – a powerful incentive that can significantly reduce their jail time. Firefighters also live in minimum-security “fire camps” instead of in cells, eat better food, and work outdoors.

The experience can provide valuable career training, though the path isn’t always smooth—California recently worked to make it easier for former inmate firefighters to obtain professional jobs upon release, but the path has been mostly closed to inmates in the past.

However, compared to professional firefighters, inmate firefighters are more than four times more likely to be injured by falling objects and more than eight times more likely to be injured by smoke inhalation. Since 2018, four inmate firefighters have died in the line of duty.

Still, many former inmates say the program gave them something prison rarely offers: dignity. “Sometimes we would stay by the fire for two or three weeks, and when we left, people would hold up signs of thanks,” former inmate firefighter David Desmond said of him in an article for The Marshall Project I wrote about my experience. “Nobody’s getting treatment. “We’re like prisoners; we’re firefighters. “

bottom line

Inmates assigned to emergencies earn, at most, a little more than $18 a day during an eight-hour shift and are unlikely to complain if they are injured or work longer hours. On the other hand, an average firefighter costs at least more than $300 a day, underscoring a broader challenge facing emergency services: balancing tight public budgets with maintaining a highly skilled and fairly paid firefighting force. — especially as climate change makes wildfires more rampant. Frequent and severe.