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California enslaves 400 prisoners to fight wildfires. (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[+] [email protected] -25 points 1 day ago (40 children)

Fire camp is a program that most prisoners actually want to get into. They get to learn useful skills, the accommodations are better, and the prisoners there don't want to get removed from the program so they're unlikely to be violent. I have a friend who spent 3 years in that program and he greatly preferred it to the prison he transferred from.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 hours ago (3 children)

And then when they get out they can't use those skills because their criminal record prevents fire departments from hiring them.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

Cal-fire will hire them directly out of prison if they've completed the program.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Cal-fire will hire them directly out of prison

No, they wont. They will give them the right to apply their is no guaranteed job at the end of it.

Inmates makeup 30% of the fire service in Cali; what a fun way to cut salary costs, hire slaves.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 13 minutes ago

https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/24/us/felon-firefighters-california/index.html

CW violence, including DV

Reyna pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter for the 2005 shooting death of Daniel Rodriguez in the San Diego city of Alpine...

Reyna is now part of a growing list of former inmates who will or have been hired full-time by fire departments just California endures massive wildland infernos caused by the climate crisis...

CalFire estimates since 2018, 229 former inmates enrolled in [Ventura Training Center]. Of those, 136 got jobs, the majority with CalFire, and 56 are in camp now.

California governor Gavin Newsom cleared roadblocks to inmates becoming fire firefighters with the signing of a bill... The bill also gave courts the power to expunge inmate firefighters’ criminal records, which had often made it more difficult for former inmates to get hired. The courts can wipe out camp prisoners guilty or nolo contendere pleas, and a plea of not guilty can be entered, or verdicts of guilt to be set aside.

One of the first former camp inmates to have his record expunged is Jose Santana, who trained at VTC, completed the program in the spring of 2021 and got hired soon after by the CalFire Tulare Station Unit.

Santana served three in years in prison for a crime he apologizes for repeatedly and to this day. The ex-convict says while drunk on Jamison whiskey, high on meth and not sleeping for five days, he smashed a liquor bottle into the head of his then girlfriend.

It's still far too hard for someone who's already done the job while incarcerated to get hired for the same job when they get out. It does happen, though, and there has been recent progress on making it easier.

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