Incarcerated women risk their lives fighting California fires

[DesertRat]

Story about the women putting their lives on the line to help fight the CA fires, for about $2 a day, just so they can get out of prison early and be with their children.

For most of the 23 years Romarilyn Ralston spent in a California prison, she made 37 cents an hour, unable to afford crafty birthday cards for her two sons, let alone the financial support she desperately wanted to give them.

Ralston did clerical and recreational work at the California Institution for Women in Chino, while voluntarily training women who have recently made national headlines for being on the front lines of the state’s biggest wildfires. The state has deployed more than 15,000 people to combat fires ripping through more than 220,000 acres in recent weeks, including as many as 1,600 trained inmates who earn, at the high end, a base pay of close to $2 a day.

Describing dangerous, backbreaking labor — they use hoes and chainsaws to manipulate the landscape and redirect fires in their tracks — Ralston compared it to a slave-era practice.

{snip}

“I’ve seen women come back with broken ankles and broken arms, burns or just suffering from exhaustion, you know, the psychological stress that people go through trying to just pass the requirements because if they don’t pass the requirements, they don’t get to camp,” she said. “It’s very stressful, not only on the body but also on the mind.”

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/incarcerated-women-risk-their-lives-fighting-california-fires-its-part-of-a-long-history-of-prison-labor

[WhiskeyGrinder]

1. Prison labor is slave labor.

[Cicada]

2. After theyre released they cant get fire fighting jobs because of criminal record

Prison camps throughout the Sierra Nevada are essential for fire fighting. Prisoners also are critical in fighting floods, stacking up sandbags for instance. When they risk their lives I think we should pay them more than $2 per day.