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Each year, up to 30% of the state’s wildfire fighting forces earn just $26.90 for a 24-hour shift. That’s because they are California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation inmates, more than 900 of whom are helping fight the wildfires that are ravaging Southern California this week.
Firefighting inside a prison is a job that everyone dreams of doing. But the fires currently threatening Los Angeles have reignited debate over the state’s reliance on low-wage prison labor, with some social media sites posting questions about how people can be helped. people are starting to ask.
The Anti-Recidivism Coalition, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit dedicated to ending mass incarceration, launched a fundraiser Friday to support California’s prison firefighters. Executive Director Sam Lewis said more than $40,000 had already been raised by Saturday morning.
Lewis said some of the money will go towards essential supplies that incarcerated firefighters need, such as new boots, toiletries and other equipment.
“Whatever they need, we buy it,” he told the Times. “I’m ordering 40 pairs of boots today.”
Lewis said he plans to use the money left after the fire to fund scholarships for formerly incarcerated firefighters, or to divide it up and donate it to individual inmate commissary accounts.
Founded by Hollywood producer Scott Budnick, who spearheaded this week’s fundraiser, ARC runs programs inside every state prison and the state’s two minimum-security fire camps in Pine Grove and Georgetown. It is operated.
Amika Mota, who worked as a firefighter at California’s Chowchilla Correctional Facility before being released in 2015, said that when a large fire breaks out, inmates will mow brush to slow the spread of the fire. They are carrying out a lot of prevention and protection work, such as cutting gaps in vegetation.
“But they are also fully fire-fighting as ‘active nozzles,’” she told the Times. “It depends.”
Outside of wildfire season, their duties include extinguishing structure fires and responding to overdoses and vehicle crashes, she said.
In recent years, prison reform and the COVID-19 pandemic have reduced the number of eligible inmates. In 2005, there were 4,250 inmate firefighters. By last summer, fewer than 1,800 individuals were housed in 35 conservation (fire) camps across the state.
Last year’s proposed budget cuts would have closed five camps in Los Angeles County, but the governor later removed them from the list of cuts after local leaders raised concerns.
Inmate firefighters typically earn $5.80 and $10.24 per day, according to the CDCR website, although they can earn more than $26 per day during wildfire season. You will receive an additional $1 per hour from Cal Fire when you are responding to an active emergency.
Still, fighting fires is one of the best-paying jobs in prisons, and offers qualified inmates the chance to reduce their sentences.
“I think all the firefighters who are on the scene right now are proud to be there,” Mota said. “But also, all of those people signed away their right to any compensation if they died at the scene of the fire.”
Anyone interested in supporting incarcerated firefighters can visit the ARC website and write “Firefighter Fund” in their donation.
Marshall Project staff writers Jamiles Lartey and Shannon Heffernan contributed to this report.
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