“I’ve never seen anything burn so quick,” said Almanza, 42, recounting the first day of the Eaton fire near Pasadena, California. “Our captains have to make the hard decisions: get yourselves killed or let the house burn.” His eyes welled up recounting the properties devoured as his crew had no choice but to retreat: “I was just so sad and emotional, because there was nothing we could do.”
Almanza is one of thousands of first responders who have put their lives on the line battling the historic windstorm-fueled fires that have ravaged LA.
Almanza is incarcerated and currently serving a state prison sentence, making up to $10.24 in daily wages fighting the wildfires, with $1 hourly bonuses while on the frontlines. Since last week, the California department of corrections and rehabilitation (CDCR) has deployed more than 1,100 incarcerated firefighters to the LA infernos, which have become some of the deadliest and most destructive in the region’s history.
Everyone’s always quick to attack Cali for literally anything.
The firefighter / emergency reponder program is a volunteer position. Prisoners are not forced to join. They willingly joined, learned about the job, and are expected to help out when needed.
Everyone likes to complain about this as forced slavery, but this is one of the better programs inmates can volunteer in. They get experience, rehabilitation, and work towards emergency certificates that they can then use to get hired once they are released.
The other states have no comparable rehabilitation program. They’ll gladly throw you out to the streets with a criminal record and let you suffer because a criminal record reduces your chance of getting a job by a significant amount.
Are there plenty of issues with the program still? Yes. There’s long, grueling hours that comes with the nature of emergency response, bad pay, and a multitude of other issues, but a lot of it ties with how the prison system works and will take a lot of reform to set things right. I’m confident in Cali working towards those things though. This state has always been working for the people, even if it’s a slow and tedious process.
And for those who actually care, you can read more about the program here:
https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/facility-locator/conservation-camps/faq-conservation-fire-camp-program/
cool motive, still slavery
Literally in my first paragraph I said it was a volunteer program
If you want to argue about forced inmate labor being the modern day slavery sure but that’s not related to this program at all
If prisons can rent out prisoners it creates a reason for prisons to have a lot of prisoners.
This by itself sets a dangerous precedent because they can just lobby against the people. Anti drug laws get them a lot of manpower so you’ll see a lot of that. Literally lobbying for anything that gets more people in jail is a win for them.
It should be an embarrassment that you’re letting people fight the fires threatening your homes and paying them literal peanuts. Other areas do similar shit and should also be embarrassed but that doesn’t lessen the embarrassment that Californians should feel.
People are losing their fucking homes and these folks are fighting to keep them standing while being paid peanuts.
Yall should be fighting to make sure they get fair compensation even if that’s not wholly available to them until after they’ve been released/granted probation.
I’ve already stated that I think this volunteer position should have better benefits and pay. Despite that, I will stand behind this program being a step towards the right direction. This program is far from exploitation. It’s not an embarrassment, and one of the few rehabilitation programs that actually attempts to help inmates get back on their feet after prison.
If you really think other states do any similar programs you’re grossly mistaken. Except for a couple other blue states, the other states imprison people in for profit prisons, so they can lease forced labor for pennies. There’s no comparable program in the states, and if you find a problem with the pay, you should be looking at literally everywhere else in the states that uses inmates for farm labor because those states refuse to pay people proper wages. Not to mention the fact that those are involuntary labor.
I’d clarify - I don’t wish this program didn’t exist I just think the monetary compensation is an embarrassment. I’d much prefer to see these volunteers more properly compensated to set them up for post incarceration life.
That’s reasonable. It’ll take a long time, they’ll have to dismantle and rebuild almost the entirety of the prison system, but that’s a goal we should be working for.