|
|
| Thousands Of Firefighters In California Are Inmates, Being Paid $1 An Hour On The Line |
| By thinkprogress.org- Natasha Geiling |
| Published: 08/14/2015 |
|
Northern California is burning: the Rocky Fire has charred nearly 70,000 acres west of Clearlake, while the Jerusalem Fire has grown to more than 14,000 acres, forcing the evacuation of 150 homes near Napa. The two fires are emblematic of a season that has been marked by a seemingly endless succession of fires, stoked by an unprecedented drought that has turned the California countryside into a tinder box of dry and dying vegetation. But the fires are also emblematic of something else: the state’s dependence on inmates to help battle wildfires wherever they occur. Since the 1940s, California has depended on the cheap labor of volunteer inmates to help control wildfires — it boasts the largest inmate firefighting program in the country, with around 4,000 inmate firefighters. But just as climate change is threatening longer, more extreme fire seasons, the state is looking at ways to cut back its unconstitutionally overcrowded prison populations. That leaves state officials in a peculiar position — will prison reforms drain the state of its cheap fire fighting labor, just when climate change means it’ll need it most? “It’s true that over time, in theory, the inmates who are eligible to volunteer, that population should be reducing in state prison,” Bill Cessa, spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, told ThinkProgress. “But we currently have a sufficient number of inmates so the fire protection is not compromised.” Read More. |
MARKETPLACE search vendors | advanced search
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
|
Comments:
No comments have been posted for this article.
Login to let us know what you think