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The Mistreatment of Our Inmate Firefighters

And How You Can Help

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An inmate firefighter pausing during his shift. Credit: Josh Edelson, AFP, Getty Images

California is burning. It has been burning for weeks. The LCU Complex fires are burning in Sonoma County, the SCU fires are burning in Santa Clara County, and the CZU fires are burning in Santa Cruz County. Raging alongside the pandemic, these fires are causing new and complicated issues for those special inmate firefighters who have fought back the forest fires in years past. Due to inmates being sent home due to COVID-19, the Conservation Camp Programs are down hundreds of firefighters, leaving those inmates still able to fight fires susceptible to injury and disease.


Maanvi Singh writes an incredibly informative article for The Guardian about the affected of the pandemic on the Conservation Camp Programs’ Firefighters, “It’s nearly impossible for crew members and firefighters to stay physically distant while they station at crowded base camps near big blazes, working in close contact for days at a time, according to officials.” The inmates are not at fault here, it is the state’s responsibility to care for their citizens- especially those in jail- to their fullest capabilities.


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Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, signs Assembly Bill 2147 after visiting the aftermath of a wildfire. The bill allows inmates who have worked as firefighters to ask the court to dismiss their charges to make it easier for them to find a job once they are released. People convicted of certain violent or sex crimes would not be eligible. Credit: Paul Kitagaki Jr., AP


The Legal Aspects Involved

In essence, inmate firefighters are fully trained by Cal Fire firefighters. They train along with Cal Fire but are paid much lower wages. Although, there are some restrictions: those guilty of sexual assault or arson, a history of escape attempts or have less than five years left to serve cannot join the Conservation Camp program. The inmates get paid only $2-5 a day, as opposed to the California minimum wage of $12/hour, these inmates are being paid $1/hour. At its core employing inmates as firefighters is a money-saving tactic that saves California almost $100m a year.


This gross injustice brings to light the mistreatment and injustice embedded in the California prison system. Journalist Singh interviewed Deirdre Wilson, a member of the California Coalition of Women Prisoner and a master’s student of social work at the University of Southern California who says that “It’s a super imbalanced system; it’s much like the system of slavery,” she goes on, “There’s a reliance on this population, on this cheap labor.” Wilson hints at a larger paradigm shift that we must make as a culture in the United States. The rhetoric surrounding law, order, crime, and punishment is violent and reminiscent of slavery.


The Thirteenth Amendment which technically abolished slavery allows for the enslavement of those “punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,” though enrollment in the Conservation Camp Firefighting unit is voluntary, the astronomically low wages and hazardous working conditions seem to only be acceptable in the prison setting. If they were to appear in any other workforce that involved civilians, this would be seen as unacceptable. We must begin to see criminals and ex-convicted as people who deserve steady jobs and a living wage.


There are firefighting camps comprised of inmates that did not receive early release. Nevertheless, there have been large outbreaks of COVID-19. Some reports state that these units had to quarantine due to possible exposure, lowering the number of available firefighters even further. The threat of both the fires and the pandemic has proven to be almost impossible for the prisons to manage. The inmate emergency responders have sustained injury and sickness due to their proximity to the fires, as well as community infection of Coronavirus.


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A group of inmate firefighters rest after their shift. Credit: Philip Pacheco, AFP, Getty Images.


Harms Inflicted Upon our Fellow Humans

Inmate Firefighting units have been sustaining serious injuries at the frontlines is not new. In an article by Abby Vesoulis from the Times, it was found that from June 2013 to August 2018, “They are more than four times as likely, per capita, to incur object-induced injuries, such as cuts, bruises, dislocations, and fractures, compared with professional firefighters working on the same fires. Inmates were also more than eight times as likely to be injured after inhaling smoke and particulates compared with other firefighters.”


Once these inmates are released, they are met with challenges if they want to get hired as a civilian firefighter. Most fire stations require full-time firefighter to be certified Emergency Medical Technicians, but California prevents anyone from becoming an EMT ten years after they have been released in prison and completely restricts anyone with two or more felonies on your record. At least that used to be the policy, as of September 1st, 2020 California lawmakers have passed bill AB-2147, penned by Assemblywoman Eloise Gomez Reyes, allowing non-violent offenders who have previously worked in fire camps to become firefighters. Now released inmates with expunged records and waived parole time are eligible to become EMTs. This law allows ex-inmates to carry on their careers and earn a living.


What You Can Do to Help


  • As what may seem the easiest and most accessible way to ensure change; sign petitions. We've done the difficulty of researching the most reliable ones for your participation, and now it's time to act.

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