To the editor: Your article on the incarcerated firefighters battling L.A.’s wildfires highlights a deeper disaster of misplaced priorities in California.
Whereas it’s heartening to see the general public rally to help these courageous people, we should confront an uncomfortable fact: When 30% of our state’s firefighting power consists of imprisoned people, we’re counting on exploited jail labor to battle a local weather emergency for which we’re woefully unprepared.
These fires expose how California’s obsession with punishment over prevention has left us susceptible. In response to the state Legislative Analyst’s Workplace, we spend about $133,000 yearly to incarcerate one particular person, but we are able to’t correctly useful resource our hearth departments or put money into local weather resilience.
In November, when voters rejected Proposition 6 to finish involuntary servitude in prisons, they endorsed a system that exploits incarcerated firefighters who put their lives on the road with minimal compensation and no employees’ rights.
As these fires rage, let’s keep in mind: Prevention and preparation save extra lives than punishment ever will. California must basically shift its priorities from reactionary responses that exploit the incarcerated to proactive investments that actually defend our communities.
George Galvis, Oakland
The author is govt director of Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice.
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To the editor: In our gratitude to the 1000’s of firefighters who’re working to comprise these wildfires, one group of firefighters has not obtained the popularity it deserves — the inmates of California prisons who’re regionally educated and skilled.
They do work that’s simply as essential as different firefighters, however it’s nearly unimaginable for them to be employed by native hearth departments as soon as they go away jail as a result of they’ve prison data. That’s absurd.
Having a job to return to reduces recidivism by giving inmates the dignity of helpful work, a revered place in the neighborhood and an everyday paycheck. On this case, it even reduces the price of coaching new firefighters.
There have to be a technique to rent these skilled firefighters. How can Los Angeles and different cities reap the benefits of this chance to extend their hearth division employees extra simply and at much less price than typical?
Maria Simpson, Los Angeles
