Prisoners as firefighters?

August 29, 2013 12:13 AM

I am looking for information on how the California Department of Corrections' use of prisoners to fight fires works.

I was reading about the Station Fire, and the phrase "...fire inmate hand crew camp (jointly operated by the Los Angeles County Fire Department and California Department of Corrections)..." jumped out at me. I followed the one live reference in Wikipedia, and Googled a bit, finding a bit of news, but I'm ultimately unsure how the program works.

Does the program actually serve to provide prisoners with work skills or some form of rehabilitation, or is it only a source of nearly-free labour?

Is this a common thing that I just haven't heard of, or is it generally restricted to California?

posted by frimble to Law & Government (7 answers total)

I've never heard of a regular fire station having an inmate crew, but I have heard of wildfire crews made up of prisoners.

The pay is high compared to other prison jobs, plus there's being outside.

I've always been under the impression that the overriding purpose of this sort of thing was to provide more firefighting crews. In fire season, they are stretched pretty thin.

I imagine the inmate crews would have some support staff that the other crews don't, so there are costs other than what the inmates are paid.
posted by yohko at 12:48 AM on August 29, 2013 [1 favorite]

Best answer: The program is run as conservation camps with both the CA Department of Forestry and LA County Fire Department. Here's the program homepage. The inmates are trained responders for other disasters like earthquakes and floods, too. In addition, in the off-season, the crews work on projects 'for local schools, counties, cities and other public entities, which results in cost savings at the local level (inmates earn approximately $1.45 - $3.90 per day for projects). Projects include clearing fire breaks, restoring historical structures, park maintenance, sand bagging / flood protection, clearing fallen trees and debris.'
Here's an older article describing the program.
Here's an article talking about how the program was slated to be cut last year.
posted by ApathyGirl at 1:37 AM on August 29, 2013 [3 favorites]

I have a friend who supervised such crews for wild land fires and not in California.
posted by k8t at 2:51 AM on August 29, 2013

Does the program actually serve to provide prisoners with work skills or some form of rehabilitation, or is it only a source of nearly-free labour?

I don't know about the specifics of firefighting, but prison work is generally meant to do those two things, and in addition it gives the prisoners "good time" credit for when they apply for parole.

I've done work inside prisons with some of the prisoners who work for the various prison labor industries. They seem relatively happy and in some cases proud to be accomplishing something.
posted by gjc at 5:37 AM on August 29, 2013

Best answer: I personally know two family members who have been prisoner fire-fighters in CA -- one man, one woman. The man was older when he went to prison and probably wouldn't have re-offended, but he has not been in prison or jail since getting out. The woman was in her 20s and had been in and out of jail since she was a teenager and this was her 2nd time in prison. She had never held a real job prior to her 2nd incarceration. She credits the firefighting program with giving her a sense of purpose -- she has been in college, held a couple of jobs, and has not been sentenced to prison since getting out. (Unfortunately, however, she has been back to jail on a misdemeanor domestic violence charge).

In my limited experience with people who have been through this program, it does seem to have some rehabilitative purpose as well as providing low cost labor for California's fire crews.
posted by elmay at 5:41 AM on August 29, 2013 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Related: Chino prison in California has run a scuba diving course (the Chino Prison Marine Technology Training Program) for some years. It is selective, intense, and turns out highly trained commercial divers suited for offshore oil work. The recidivism rate is 6%, against 65% for the general prison population.

California has a whole program devoted to inmate employability, operating under various different models. Businesses that participate in the scheme get cheap labor and financial incentives. The California Prison Industry Authority cites recidivism rates of 9% for inmates participating in its joint venture scheme.

In 2008, Arnie opened a new inmate firefighter training center. Apparently the first program of its kind (I presume in California) was at Folsom in 2006.
posted by MuffinMan at 6:30 AM on August 29, 2013 [3 favorites]

Best answer: You may be interested in this, it's a long article but goes into considerable detail.

Burn:The tale of an Arizona forest fire, the prison inmates who died fighting it, and the families who struggled for justice.

Today, inmate firefighting crews are active in at least 14 states, including Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming. To serve on a fire crew, an inmate must be classified as minimum security and be considered a low flight risk. Violent offenders, sex offenders and, of course, arsonists are disqualified. California runs the country’s largest program, with about 196 fire crews and 4,300 juvenile and adult offenders participating in the program each year.

In the Line of Wildfire mentions someone who once worked on an inmate crew -- maybe an example of job training there? Bear in mind that the hotshots discussed in that article are paid more than most firefighters, and it's a seasonal job.

Fate unclear for Calif. inmate firefighting crews has some mention of things related to job training and recidivism rates, as well as details for costs to different agencies.
posted by yohko at 11:11 AM on August 29, 2013 [3 favorites]