BUT for the heroic work of state prisoners, the wildfires that recently swept through northern California would have been even more destructive. Around 4,000 low-level felons made up 30% of the forest firefighters battling the raging flames, carrying chainsaws and other heavy equipment. Some risked their lives. Last year Shawna Lynn Jones, a 22-year-old who had less than two months of her three-year sentence left, died while fighting a fire. By all accounts, Ms Jones took great pride in her work, for which she was paid less than $2 an hour, and would have liked to continue firefighting once released.
Yet California, like many other states, makes it virtually impossible for former prisoners to get a firefighter’s licence. The state requires nearly all firefighters to be certified as an emergency medical technician (EMT), an approval usually denied to convicted felons. That is why only a handful of former prisoners managed to get a job with Cal Fire (the California Department...Continue reading
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