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| How Inmate Firefighting Compares to Other Prison Jobs |
| By psmag.com- Francie Diep |
| Published: 09/28/2015 |
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It's fire season in the American West. For California, that means drawing on thousands of low-level felons to fill its firefighting ranks. The inmates-as-firefighters practice has gained some public attention in recent years, bringing a new dimension to the discussion about whether the current system of inmate labor is fair. In our March/April issue, writer Graeme Wood reported from Colorado Correctional Industries, a complex in CanĚon City where prisoners pick blackberries, farm tilapia, make furniture, and perform other forms of manual labor. The fruits of these labors are often sold to consumers throughout the United States. "If you have profited from the work of a person in chains, you almost certainly don't know about it," Wood writes. "And by keeping the products unlabeled and unnoticed, prison labor systems all over the country have skirted uproar over whether prison labor is fair and just." Volunteer inmate firefighters, meanwhile, are paid $2 a day, with a bonus of $2 an hour when they're in the front lines of flames, Mother Jones reports. It's hot, strenuous work, and shifts can last 24 hours, according to BuzzFeed. Inmates sustain serious injuries every year, such as getting hit by debris, or breaking an arm, a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesperson told the BBC. Because inmate labor is so cheap, CDCR says its "fire camps" save the state more than $100 million a year, KQED reported in 2014. Read More. |
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