California’s Inmate Firefighters and America’s Weaponization of Criminality

On the left a cell in Riker’s Island (Librado Romero/ The New York Times/ Redux) and on the right one in Halden Prison, Norway (STR/Reuters /Landon)

America’s punitive justice system systemically fails society. Our recidivism rates (when someone is rearrested after being imprisoned) are around 50 percent after eight years, with the majority of those rearrests coming within the first 21 months of release. Half of people arrested for crimes stay criminals for a good deal of their lives. Highlighting the punitive mindset that gives rise to this terrible outcome, inmates who battle wildfires in California are unable, except in the rarest of circumstances, to use their experience to become firefighters after serving their time. This example of exploitation, often combined with racial discrimination, is not unique in America’s weaponization of criminality.

Some 1,306 incarcerated individuals are actively fighting the forest fires in California. Threatened by the fires and Covid-19, they are paid $3.63 per day, with an extra dollar per hour when they are deployed to active fires. They perform a valuable service, proving that, despite their crimes, they can contribute to society. Some might imagine they would be given the opportunity to become firefighters after they’d served their time. However, most municipal fire departments in California require EMT certification. This certification is virtually impossible for former inmates to obtain because “[s]tate law directs…