BY: THE PLAID ZEBRA
The tree line recedes behind a scorched hillside; the smell of charred timber hanging above the burned-0ver land. For California’s professional firefighters, the smell might remind them that the state is drying up. But for the firefighters in the orange jumpsuits, the plumes of smoke remind them that 65% of their prison sentence is being swallowed by flames.
Almost half of the people fighting California’s forest fires are incarcerated.
Photo by: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
Most have been convicted of fairly low-level crimes like drug charges and robbery.
Photo by Sandy Huffaker/ Getty Images
Each crew has two professional firefighters and 15 to 17 inmates armed with chainsaws, axes and 100 pounds of gear.
Photo by Wes Scultz for BuzzFeed
Fire camps began during WWII, to replace those who had gone overseas.
Today, over 4,400 inmates make up 42 inmate camps.
Photo by Wes Scultz for BuzzFeed
Inmates work 24-hr shifts and make about $2 a day.
Photo by Scott Sabicer, OPEC
Often working in heat over 102 degrees, some have made comparisons to slavery.
Photo by Scott Sabicer, OPEC
But others believe it gives inmates the opportunity to shake the self-fulfilling prophecy of criminality.
It also gives them the opportunity to only serve 35% of their sentence.
Photo: Michael P. Neufeld/ROTWNEWS
Over 117,960 acres have burned in California this year. That’s more than 29,972 more acres than this time last year.
Photo by Chris Tuite for BuzzFeed
As California experiences an extreme drought, and forest fires begin to break national records, inmate firefighters are becoming more and more necessary.
Photo by Jason Halley for Chico Enterprise-Record
But as laws change and drug offenders sentences are dramatically reduced the state is going to have to choose between crippling debt or allowing more violent offenders on the fire crews.
Photo by Casey Christie/Bakersfield Californian
Is this modern slavery? Or is it a more productive use of what could be wasted time?
Photo by Chris Tuite for BuzzFeed
Sources: dailynews.com, droughtmonitor.unl.edu, cdfdata.fire.ca.gov, washingtonpost.com, cdcr.ca.gov, kqed.org, buzzfeed.com, nbcnews.com, ytimg.com, buzzfed.com, insidecdcr.ca.gov, boston.com, cbslocal.com, kqed.org, businessinsider.com, rotwnews.com
