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Showing Original Post only (View all)30 Percent of California's Forest Firefighters Are Prisoners [View all]
About 4,000 inmates battle blazes in the Golden State's woodlands.
Here's a kind of crazy stat: Between 30 and 40 percent of California's forest firefighters are state prison inmates. The state has become a tinderbox of sorts from a four-year drought, and roughly 4,000 low-level felons are on the front lines of the state's active fires. Here's what's going on:
Why are prisoners fighting fires? For years, California's prison system has operated a number of "conservation camps," in which low-level felons in the state prison system volunteer to do manual labor outside, like clearing brush to prevent forest fires or fighting the fires themselves. A handful of other states have similar programs, but California's program is by far the largest, with roughly 4,000 participants. At its best, the program is a win-win situation: Inmates learn useful skills and spend time outside the normal confines of prison, and the collaboration with Cal Fire saves the state roughly $80 million a year.
Participants make $2 per day in the program and $2 an hour when they're on a fire line. That may sound paltry, though it's not bad by prison standards: Many prison jobs bring in less than $1 per hour. In addition, for each day they work in the program, the inmates receive a two-day reduction from their sentences.
So these are convicted felons? Yesthe prisoners are typically low-level felons, all of whom have volunteered to participate in the program and have demonstrated good behavior in prison. Some convictions exclude prisoners from applying, like arson (surprise, surprise) or sex crimes. One benefit of the program is that it often breaks down racial barriers: "When people are incarcerated they tend to segregate by race," says Hadar Aviram, a law professor and criminologist at the University of California-Hastings. "The fire camps are not like that. People who do not associate with each other inside a prison are willing to be friends when they're at a fire camp."
...
Why are prisoners fighting fires? For years, California's prison system has operated a number of "conservation camps," in which low-level felons in the state prison system volunteer to do manual labor outside, like clearing brush to prevent forest fires or fighting the fires themselves. A handful of other states have similar programs, but California's program is by far the largest, with roughly 4,000 participants. At its best, the program is a win-win situation: Inmates learn useful skills and spend time outside the normal confines of prison, and the collaboration with Cal Fire saves the state roughly $80 million a year.
Participants make $2 per day in the program and $2 an hour when they're on a fire line. That may sound paltry, though it's not bad by prison standards: Many prison jobs bring in less than $1 per hour. In addition, for each day they work in the program, the inmates receive a two-day reduction from their sentences.
So these are convicted felons? Yesthe prisoners are typically low-level felons, all of whom have volunteered to participate in the program and have demonstrated good behavior in prison. Some convictions exclude prisoners from applying, like arson (surprise, surprise) or sex crimes. One benefit of the program is that it often breaks down racial barriers: "When people are incarcerated they tend to segregate by race," says Hadar Aviram, a law professor and criminologist at the University of California-Hastings. "The fire camps are not like that. People who do not associate with each other inside a prison are willing to be friends when they're at a fire camp."
...
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/08/40-percent-californias-fires-are-fought-prison-inmates
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Perhaps. Perhaps this situation and this particular prison system is an exception
RadiationTherapy
Aug 2015
#58
You are mostly correct in those assumptions about the California Department of Corrections
nadinbrzezinski
Aug 2015
#59
Convicts of which laws? Outcomes of which prejudices and systemic pressures?
RadiationTherapy
Aug 2015
#57
Are you forgetting they get two days off their sentence for every day worked
yeoman6987
Aug 2015
#56
Of course it has issues, but there's no evidence of abuse in the CalFire program.
Xithras
Aug 2015
#10
Drug laws and homelessness laws are typically the ones that do little more than fill prisons.
RadiationTherapy
Aug 2015
#11
Prison labor profits both Ca AND the companies that provide it. Kamala Harris is plain creepy here.
stuffmatters
Aug 2015
#12
So you woudl rather have these people come in and out of prison for the rest of their lives?
nadinbrzezinski
Aug 2015
#45
+1000, they want to be outside the walls. Make them feel free. No one is forcing them either. nt
Logical
Aug 2015
#52
Will they get recognition as "first responders?" AND don't forget a huge portion of cheap labor
kelliekat44
Aug 2015
#62