General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: 30 Percent of California's Forest Firefighters Are Prisoners [View all]nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)you would have a point. But this is not the case. It runs the state about 3000 to hire seasonal firefighters per month. It is costing 5500 per month to house these volunteers. If you round up the pay, it comes to 6000 per prison volunteer. If you add overtime, they might come to even by the way on a bad season.
I just do not see the savings here.
There are savings, down the line as people do not re-offend. That is where the potential savings come in. The program was targeted in the 1980s for elimination because these guys got it too easy and we should punish them...and was one of the few nationwide to survive, by a hair mind you.
Compare and contrast with service centers, managed in other states by Prison corporation, where prisoners, who are not volunteers, get paid cents in the dollar and prison corporation is contracting out for a lot of money.
And the theoretical used in other professions...it is not theoretical...it is happening right now. Prison based industries are way lucrative. Why private prisons are suing states for gasp...not providing bodies fast enough.
As I said, this is a remnant of another era. This is being managed by a state agency. Due to realignment counties like mine are looking into opening conservation camps as well. When they look at the actual numbers I am betting it is dying...wait, in my county it quietly fell off the agenda. The math did not make any sense. Then again, my county does not even pay volunteers what prison Inmates get in the daily stipend when on the line, which they are mandated by the state. So it is cheaper to have volunteers manning back country stations with the occasional career to supervise them.
And the inmates, and their families, as well as program graduates, have lobbied the state not just to preserve it, but perhaps expand their functions and to year round. With climate change they just might...