When I came across this information, I knew I needed to consult the gods on how to do justice to it. Since it’s regarding incarcerated firefighters, I went to the god of fire, Hephaestus. (You may google other names, but they are Titans or demigods.)
I know I have signed petitions about incarcerated firefighters being underpaid, and y’all probably have also. So reading this thread from an actual (former) incarcerated firefighter was a real eye-opener for me. It may surprise you as well. It is from BlueSky, and before it was posted at Democratic Underground, the individual posts were turned into a single coherent thread, including the name and handle of the author being repeated under each individual post. It’s long enough that I have removed that repeated information except for the first one, which I left as a credential.
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From Bluesky: “I am a former incarcerated firefighter. I served in a California fire camp from 2009 to 2012.”
Matthew Hahn
@hahnscratch.bsky.social
12h
I am a former incarcerated firefighter. I served in a California fire camp from 2009 to 2012.
Misinformation is afire on the internet, so here are facts about the prison firefighter program, all in one place.
A thread.
– incarcerated wildland firefighters receive between $5.80 and $10.24 per day when not working on emergency incidents
– they receive $1 / hr when working on an incident, which is in addition to the daily stipend
– they earn additional time served credits and are paroled earlier (I went home 18 months earlier)
– they are eligible to have their criminal records expunged after coming home (mine was expunged last month)
– wildland firefighting is one of the few voluntary job assignments in the California prison system, voluntary in the sense that a person isn’t sent to fire camp unless they ask and / or agree to it
– they are eligible to apply to US Forest Service for firefighting jobs after release; CalFire has a training program in Ventura County just for formerly incarcerated firefighters; expungement of the criminal record should make it easier to get jobs in other jurisdictions or fields
- incarcerated wildland firefighters live outside the prison walls; they do not return to a prison cell after the fire is over
– they have humane picnic-style visits with family, often in an outdoor park setting with BBQ pits
– there are no armed guards in fire camps
– camps are typically in nature, and daily exercise includes hiking and running through the mountains
– there are actual weights and gym equipment in fire camps, amenities that were removed from CA prisons decades ago
– incarcerated wildland firefighters who have lived in fire camp for some time typically parole with sizable amounts of money, relative to other prisoners in CA
– they eat good and plentiful food for standard meals; they get steak and rib meals during and after incidents
More…
- they get a sense of purpose in doing something valuable
– they get to utilize hobby shops for painting, sculpture, woodworking, metalworking, clock building, etc
\While working at a fire, disaster, or other type of incident:
– shifts of 24 hours are typical, though they can be longer during the initial phases of an incident or during extreme circumstances
– meals during the active shift are irregular for obvious reasons
– showers do not happen during shifts for obvious reasons
– at completion of a 24-hour shift, there is typically a 24-hour, fully paid rest shift at a base camp
– these conditions are the same as for free firefighters
On the program:
– firefighter training provided by CalFire happens at a prison, not at a fire camp
– the training includes PFT, physical fitness training, and FFT, firefighting training
– the PFT lasts a couple of weeks and FFT lasts a couple of weeks
– the FFT is not the exact same training that a CalFire employee would receive because incarcerated firefighters have a narrower job duty
– they are trained as wildland firefighters, which means they fight fires with chainsaws, Pulaskis, McLeods, and shovels (hand tools)
– they aren’t trained to use a fire hose or run an engine, nor as the type of firefighter that goes into buildings, rescues people, saves cats, etc
– their task is to cut a fire break between what is burning and what has yet to burn
– wildland firefighters are not the same as city / structure firefighters
– when not on a fire, the incarcerated firefighter crews typically do community projects, such as brush abatement, trail maintenance, tree-felling in parks, etc
– they are not supervised by correctional officers 24/7; during regular work days, they are “checked out” to the fire department
– they work on service projects during the day and return to the prison camp at the end of the work day
– when they are on a fire, guards accompany the crews to the incident, but they do not go with the crew into the fire
Eligibility for the incarcerated firefighter program:
– minimum security status
– no active warrants
– no physical, medical, or psychiatric conditions (there are no clinics or pharmacies in remote fire camps)
– recent, clear disciplinary history
– less than 8 years remaining on sentence
– no convictions for serious violence, sex, arson, or escape attempts
Those are the facts as far as I know them. Now for some opinions.
An argument can be made that choosing to go to fire camp isn’t a choice due to the inhumane conditions behind the prison walls. There is merit in this argument.
Yet, the fire camps remain the most humane places to serve time in the California prison system, and it is the only program that offers full expungement of criminal records after release.
Folks don’t go to fire camp for the money, they go for the freedom.
And this is (part) of why I was in prison in the first place:
I once burgled a home & stole a safe. I cracked the safe & discovered photos of the owner molesting a child. He reported the burglary to police. I turned the photos in. The cops called him in to discuss the burglary. He confessed. We both went to prison.
January 14, 2025 at 8:20 PM
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Hephaestus, I’m confident you are just as interested in humans who work to minimize the damage – to plants, animals, humans, and property – as you are in the fires themselves. Certainly we are concerned that those who do this dangerous work are appropriately compensated for the work and for the danger. My husband is incarcerated – in a different state – but I do know some generalities about prisons. For one thing, they do not need to spend money for rent, groceries, or utilities – they are allowed to spend money on food items including coffee and similar beverages, if they want to have more items than supplied, or certain items which are not supplied. There are some amenities for which they do not need to spend money but their loved ones do, such as funds for them to make phone calls home or, in some cases, to attorneys. (Loved ones are also able to send them care packages of snacks, drinks, and toiletries.) These are by choice. Certainly no one outside of prison or a similar situation could survive on they they are paid. However, it would indeed be possible to build a decent sum to give one a head start upon discharge. Of course, higher wages never hurt anyone that I know of. But on the other hand, it does not sound like Mr. Hahn is unhappy with his experience in the program. And the figures are quite different from what we have been told by people sponsoring petitions on the subject -although those numbers may well be accurate for other states. (I won’t name any – but I can definitely think of some.)
Certainly every state has its own prison system and they are all different, depending upon a number of different factors, starting eith the makeup of the state legislature. Ans the Federal prison system is different from all of them. When seeking prison reform it is important to understand in as much detail as possible what conditions currently exist. Hephaestus, you might want to have a sit-down with Tartarus and chat about this sometime, But that’s up to you.
