Prison inmates have been drafted to help fight LA wildfires as infernos destroy almost 5,000 structures.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) deployed 783 prison inmates, according to figures revealed by the department to CBS. The prisoners are incarcerated firefighters are involved with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) to assist its nearly 4,700 firefighters and work as paid volunteers.
The prisoners are paid depending on their skill level - earning between $5.80 and $10.24 per day. It comes as firefighters have achieved some containment of the Palisades Fire, officials say. The Palisades Fire, which started Tuesday and has burned through the seaside enclave of Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles, remained uncontained until Thursday evening, when officials said containment was at 6%.
The word you need to use is ‘slaves’.
Just need a consultational amendment to change it. Getting 3/4 of states to agree on anything is going to be nearly a miracle, let alone that thing being the rights of the cheapest labor pool they have.
They get paid almost 7 bucks an hour to risk their lives. Great deal!
Per day
Don’t forget about their free housing accomodations! Those are worth at least $300 a day.
They get paid, so it’s more like serfs.
$5-10 per day is so low that the difference between it and wholly unpaid labor is too small to be significant. The real payment argument is that they get time off their sentences:
Most incarcerated fire crew members receive 2-for-1 credits, meaning they receive two additional days off their sentence for every one day they serve on a fire crew. Camp volunteers who work as support staff, but not on a fire crew, receive day-for day credits, meaning they receive one day off their sentence for every one day they serve as a firefighter.
There are 1000 changes that need to be made immediately to the criminal legal system and this program is far from ideal. But this is a major fact that we shouldn’t be ignorant of or omit.
Some context from the article was left out of OP’s summary:
The department said inmates would work cutting fire lines and removing fuel from behind structures to help slow the spread of the blazes - as well as serving in wider support roles at the camps, including cooking, laundry and water treatment plant operation.
Some further, even more important context from the original CBS article mentioned in OP’s article can be found here:
