In California's dry climate, wildfires are par for the course. This year, however, the fires have been particularly severe. PBS News Hour reports the Mendocino Complex fire has become the largest fire in the state's history. It is one of 18 fires currently raging in California.
As the government struggles with these fires and to keep them from claiming more lives, 14,000 firefighters are on the ground and in the sky doing their best to contain the blazes.
While California's firefighters are working around the clock, the considerable force of men and women isn't enough to keep the blazes in check. So the state has recruited about 3,400 inmates via the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to help, according to Newsweek.
Today, more than 2,000 volunteer inmate firefighters, including 58 youth offenders, are battling wildfire flames throughout CA. Inmate firefighters serve a vital role, clearing thick brush down to bare soil to stop the fire's spread. #CarrFire
#FergusonFire
#MendocinoComplex— CA Corrections (@CACorrections) July 31, 2018
These inmates earn a paltry $2 a day and an additional $1 per hour when actively battling fires. They are sent into the field after completing a two-week training course and are kept in minimum security field camps when not on the front lines. This pay pales in comparison to what their professional firefighter comrades make, each of whom earns an average salary of $74,000 plus benefits.
Furthermore, when professional firefighters die in the line of duty, their families receive compensation. This is not the case for the families of inmate firefighters.
This program saves the state about $80 million a year, but at what cost?
Inmate firefighter La'Sonya Edwards told The New York Times fighting the fires "isn't that different from slave conditions. We need to get paid for what we do."
The 13th Amendment, of course, makes slavery legal "as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted."
While it isn't clear how many of the inmate firefighters are black, according to the Public Policy Institute of California, black men are overly represented in the prison population: 29 percent of male prisoners in the state prisons are black.
Making matter worse, the skills these inmate firefighters are honing in their battles with the blazes will be useless to them when they return to civilian life. The vast majority of U.S. fire departments require professional firefighters to have EMT training; however, formerly incarcerated individuals are not allowed this training, the Washington Examiner reports.
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