Inmates must rely on one another in dangerous, life-threatening conditions
Inmate fire teams are doing a lot more than work behind the fire lines. They are working off prison time, reports the Auburn Journal.
The first permanent conservation camp was established in 1946 for low-level offenders who “have been volunteering to learn the trade of wildland firefighting and a host of other skills they can use upon release.”
Some of these skills such as woodworking, metalwork and welding are not recreational activities. They are a way to maintain equipment and earn money. Examples are making park benches and custom-inlaid tables.
Part of the August story was based on Growlersburg Camp 33, just outside Georgetown. This is where the inmates live and work as part of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to become firefighters.
In this camp, the report talks about Daniel O’Connor, 26, who is serving his fourth year of a five-year sentence for a DUI with great bodily injury. If he were not in this camp, he would be doing his time in prison.
O’Connor said fighting large fires “feels like you’re in a war zone sometimes. Just planes everywhere, flames are right there.” He also said, “You don’t know whether the flames are going to overtake you. It gets kind of scary.”
The report talked about the assistant camp commander, Sgt. Gerald Hoff. Before transferring to the camp, he worked at Pelican Bay State Prison. Hoff says the atmosphere at the camp is much different from that of a California state prison.
Hoff also said that gang violence or racial tension have no place in the camp — “they sleep together, they eat together,” Hoff said. Like other firefighters, they can also save lives, he added.
The Journal reported that fighting wildfires requires cohesive teamwork. Inmates have to rely on one another in very dangerous life-threatening conditions.
The Growlersburg camp has 112 inmates but can support 132. All inmate volunteer fire teams are trained at CAL FIRE facilities. The volunteers must pass a battery of physical fitness tests.
The department has 44 fire camps, which saves the state an enormous amount of money, the newspaper noted.
