Kim Kardashian is increasingly using her celebrity to advocate for criminal justice reform, calling for pay increases for incarcerated firefighters in California battling deadly fires in Los Angeles There is.
The reality star-turned-beauty mogul has already claimed 25 lives, destroyed thousands of structures and killed dozens of others as the Palisades Fire, Eaton Fire and other fires continue to burn through the region. He praised the hundreds of inmate firefighters on the front lines of the historic firestorm that evacuated the city. of thousands of people.
Kardashian, the daughter of the late Robert Kardashian, who once defended OJ Simpson, and an aspiring lawyer, has used her platform to highlight the plight of incarcerated firefighters and advocate for better pay.
The Times reports that these people are inmates of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, who make up about 30% of California’s wildfire fighting force each year, and earn just $26.90 for a 24-hour shift. It is said that there is no. More than 900 of them helped fight the wildfires that ripped through Southern California last week.
The “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” star said on Instagram Saturday that hundreds of firefighters are “risking their lives to save us,” and that they work 24-hour shifts and are “paid next to nothing.” He said he was working “to prove” he was risking his life or dying in the process. They have changed their communities and are now our first responders.
“I consider them heroes,” she wrote in a post to her 358 million followers.
But the reality star laments that firefighters are paid $1 an hour, which she says has been the same since 1984. According to the CDCR website, inmate firefighters typically earn between $5.80 and $10.24 a day, but during wildfires they can earn more than $26 a day. season. You can receive an additional $1 per hour from Cal Fire when you are actively responding to emergencies.
“It’s never been increased due to inflation. It was never increased when the fires got worse and a lot of people died,” Kardashian lamented, adding that one of the proposals for a pay increase was ” It was rejected at the last minute.”
“I highly recommend @cagovernor [Gavin Newsom] Do what no governor has been able to do in the past 40 years and raise the salaries of incarcerated firefighters to a certain level. [that] It honors the human beings who risk their lives to save our lives and our homes,” she wrote.
Kardashian also thanked California Forest Fire Protection at the Ventura Training Center, which came to the rescue of the community last week when the Kenneth Fire threatened their Hidden Hills home and forced the evacuation of Kardashian and her reality TV family. I thanked the department’s firefighters.
“These are all formerly incarcerated firefighters who want to come back and continue serving their communities as firefighters because of the bill that was passed. [the Anti-Recidivism Coalition]these people can now have their sentences reduced and have their felonies removed from their fire department records. And when they get home, they can get a six-figure job working in the fire department,” she wrote.
The Anti-Recidivism Coalition, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that works to end mass incarceration, launched a fundraiser Friday to support California’s prison firefighters. Sam Lewis, the coalition’s executive director, said they had already raised more than $40,000 by Saturday morning.
Meanwhile, private firefighters hired by homeowners have drawn criticism for widening class disparities during disasters. This week, a Pacific Palisades homeowner faced a digital firestorm after asking X users to help him find a civilian firefighter to save his home. Incidentally, Kardashian and her then-husband Kanye West credited civilian firefighters with saving their $60 million home in the Santa Monica Mountains during a wildfire in 2018. Kardashian’s critics were also quick to point out that despite her defense, she came under fire for violating her drought by exceeding her home’s allotted water budget by 232,000 gallons in 2022. did. (The issue resurfaced this week, with complaints about her sister Khloe Kardashian being further highlighted when the city’s fire chief criticized Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass for budget cuts that she blamed on a lack of preparation.)
The Marshall Project and other prison reform groups took to social media to point out that the working conditions shocked some people, and that they are calling for forced labor and involuntary labor, which is recognized by the California Constitution and supported by a November ballot measure. Over the past week, we have highlighted the plight of incarcerated firefighters as we renew the debate about criminal servitude. election.
Last week, CDCR Director Jeff Macomber said incarcerated workers are an “essential” part of the state’s fire response. The Times reported that firefighters often work in temporary capacity, using hand tools to clear vegetation and create firebreaks to slow the spread of wildfires, but they also have to deal with the task of manipulating fire hoses and difficult situations. Tasks such as spraying fuel are left to professional firefighters. However, professional and incarcerated firefighters typically do grueling physical labor during emergencies and work 24-hour shifts.
Formerly incarcerated firefighter Matthew Hahn said he posted a series of viral threads about his former working conditions to combat misinformation about the state’s firefighter program.
His statements about pay largely echo Kardashian’s, but he noted that incarcerated firefighters earn additional time-limited service credits and are eligible for early parole. He pointed out that they, like the Kardashians, are eligible to have their criminal records expunged.
“[W]”Wildland Firefighting is one of the few voluntary jobs in the California prison system and is voluntary in the sense that no one is sent to a fire camp without their request or consent,” he wrote.
“[I]”Incarcerated wildland firefighters who live in fire camps for some time are typically paroled with significant funds compared to other California inmates,” he wrote. “[T]Hey, eat delicious and plentiful food for a standard meal… [and] They have a sense of purpose to do something worthwhile. ”
Times staff writers Keri Brakinger and Ruben Vives contributed to this report.
