California Firefighting Program Essay

The state of California has a program that allows inmates from prison to be put through a two week course so they can help fight wildfires. Normally, this is just for “minimum-security inmates with no history of violent crimes that can participate.” The numbers of inmates in the firefighting unit have dropped in California due to overcrowding in prisons. To help the inflation, they are keeping people in jails around the state. Their job is to handle the tools to “chew through brush and timberland to create firebreaks to stop advancing flames.” Attention was brought to this because of the worsening climate conditions in CA making for better odds of a wildfire. The state has been in a bad drought lately and that only increases the odds of a wildfire to start. The inmates in the program are housed in a one of 43 camps with a few correctional guards. When it comes time to actually fight a fire, they are watched only by an unarmed CalFire captain. Even then, the captains are asking for tools from the inmates and can’t exactly keep a close watch on them. …show more content…
All but one were found. Bill Sessa, the corrections spokesman, said that they wouldn’t put an inmate in the camp if they were to have a violent attitude. Even the inmates that qualify to help with fires have the chance of acting up. Some people aren’t too sure about the whole idea. Bothe the CalFire spokeswoman and the State Senator, Jim Nielsen, feel that no matter what the program should keep going and that it’s risky saying “They’re weighing this minor good against a major bad of compromising justice and the safety of our