200 Female Inmates Are Fighting Fires in California

[DesertRat]

Incarcerated women in California are fighting wildfires for $2 per day plus $1 per hour for time on the fire line. Despite their experience, the women will not be eligible to serve as full-time firefighters after release from prison.

Before they head out, the women pack plenty of water: at least two canteens and a CamelBak hydration system each, along with extra safety glasses, snacks, and ready-to-eat meals in case the shift runs long. They also bring “ponies,” short lengths of hose to attach to a hydrant or other apparatus. The backpack weighs nearly 40 pounds in the end.

Sandra Welsh is a firefighter. But unlike most California firefighters, she is only paid $2 per day and doesn’t get to go home at the end her shift. Because she's also a prison inmate.

“We are the ones that do the line. We are the ones that carry the hose out. We’re the line of defense,” Welsh said in a recent interview with NBC News. Welsh, an inmate at Malibu Conservation Camp #13, is one of about 200 incarcerated women incarcerated around the state who fight fires in California.

Her group is on standby as firefighters battle the Canyon 2 fire in the Anaheim Hills. But other women are part of the fight against the fires currently devastating the state, which have claimed 21 lives and destroyed 3,500 structures over the past few days.

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/The-Female-Inmates-Fighting-Fires-in-California-450438783.html

[Angry Dragon]

1. a kick and rec for the women

[Wounded Bear]

2. Not sure it's new for inmates to do this, but kudos to the women in this story...

I'd like to think they get some added benefits beyond that pitiful pay.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

3. Prison labor is slave labor.

[msongs]

4. male inmates having been doing this for decades nt

[DesertRat]

5. Yes, they have. nt

[Joe941]

6. I'm sure tRump is behind this - slave driver.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

7. I doubt that Trump is behind this

First, I'd guess these inmates were given a choice. Get out and fight a fire, or sit in mind-numbing boredom of the cell.

Second, Trump doesn't give a rat's ass about the people of California. They gave him no electoral college votes, in fact millions of them voted (illegally) for someone else. In Trump's view: screwm.

[DesertRat]

8. I agree with you. nt

[jeffreyi]

9. Nothing new here.

More facts, please. At the inmate camp nearby every work day counts against and reduces the sentence time. So there is more to it than the measely non existent pay.

[rollin74]

10. I know (male) former inmates who worked on fire crews

and those jobs are highly sought after by the prisoners and there are far more applicants than openings

I would imagine it might be similar with some of the female prisoners

MANY of the firefighters working wildland fires are prison inmates. It's common and certainly nothing new