"PATRICK T. FALLON / AFP via Getty Images California relies heavily on incarcerated firefighters to protect life and property, but pays them a pittance. Recently, a major grassroots and legislative push to improve working conditions for incarcerated firefighters enjoyed some success. On October 13, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 247 into law, raising their base pay and doubling the amount by which they can reduce their sentences."
"According to Simone Price, director of organizing at the Center for Employment Opportunities, "For the past several wildfire seasons, about a third of the emergency responses that were deployed to fires were currently incarcerated people, and this past January, those numbers were 40 percent." In a state plagued by increasingly frequent fire-related events in a warming climate, it's likely that number will remain high."
"In spite of the historic 2020 racial justice protests that called for a reevaluation of the criminal legal system, and in spite of California being considered one of the nation's most liberal states, incarcerated people in the state continue to face dehumanization. Voters in 2024 failed to pass Proposition 6, a ballot measure that would have ended forced servitude within prisons."
California relies heavily on incarcerated firefighters to protect life and property while paying them very low wages. A grassroots and legislative push produced AB 247, signed October 13 by Gov. Newsom; the law raises their base pay and doubles the amount by which they can reduce their sentences. AB 247 was one of five bills signed from a seven-bill "Firefighting to Freedom" package. Recent deadly fires in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades and rising wildfire seasons emphasize this dependency. About a third of emergency responses were by incarcerated people in recent seasons, rising to 40 percent in January.
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