The State of California is on fire, literally. If you’ve seen the news lately you know that the state is currently battling the largest wildfire in the states history. Fighting those fires are scores of courageous firefighters, many of which are prisoners from CDCR. The Conservation (Fire) Camps, as they are known, make up about 219 volunteer fire crews in the state of California and have been around since WWII. The firefighters are trained in fire-fighting techniques by CalFire, which include two weeks of classroom and field training.
So, a volunteer force of prisoners trained to fight fires should be able to secure a job with CalFire after they served their time or are paroled, right? Wrong, CalFire does not hire ex-offenders because under state law firefighters must also be a licensed EMT which requires you to have no criminal history. This needs to change. If these returning citizens were willing volunteer to sacrifice life and limb (and some have) while a prisoner, they they should be given the chance to secure a job after they have paid their debt to society, its the least we can do.
Photo by mikhail serdyukov on Unsplash