So all we need to do is find a way to put people in prison!

Win-win!

    • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
      27·
      2 days ago

      Umm

      The website for this program states the exact opposite

      https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/facility-locator/conservation-camps/faq-conservation-fire-camp-program/

      Yes. A felony conviction does not disqualify employment with CAL FIRE. Many former camp firefighters go on to gain employment with CAL FIRE, the United States Forest Service and interagency hotshot crews.

      CAL FIRE, California Conservation Corps (CCC), and CDCR, in partnership with the Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC), developed an 18-month enhanced firefighter training and certification program at the Ventura Training Center (VTC), located in Ventura County.

      The VTC trains formerly-incarcerated people on parole who have recently been part of a trained firefighting workforce housed in fire camps or institutional firehouses operated by CAL FIRE and CDCR. Members of the CCC are also eligible to participate. VTC cadets receive additional rehabilitation and job training skills to help them be more successful after completion of the program. Cadets who complete the program are qualified to apply for entry-level firefighting jobs with local, state, and federal firefighting agencies.

      For more information, visit the Ventura Training Center (VTC) webpage.

      • The Stoned Hacker@lemmy.world
        2·
        1 day ago

        To my knowledge, this was only implemented recently and due to state budget cuts to firefighting services, fire departments in California are understaffed. Ex convicts can work as firefighters now, but it’s unlikely they’ll be able to do so. And as I said, this was only implemented recently so for many years they couldn’t. And hiring culture takes time to change.

    • LovableSidekick@lemmy.worldEnglish
      183·
      2 days ago

      That’s the first sensible advocacy point I’ve seen sense I started reading these threads. It really doesn’t make sense to assign prisoners to jobs they’re legally barred from.

      • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
        94·
        2 days ago

        From what I’ve heard this is actually an excellent job for many of them. It’s good pay (for prison labor) doing valuable work with a lot of dignity. And it’s work for their community that’s valuable on the outside. It should always be truly voluntary else it be horrifying, but if they can’t do it once they get out it’s not job training and it’s not reducing recidivism. These prisoners are doing heroic work, let them be heroic once freed.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
          22·
          2 days ago

          All prison jobs should pay actual wages and be voluntary though. While the firefighting job is voluntary, many prison jobs are not. Including jobs making products for private companies.

          • RagingRobot@lemmy.world
            8·
            2 days ago

            They absolutely should not be allowed to work for private companies for less than a normal employee. That’s infuriating. Those companies should be burned to the ground. Disgusting

          • Apytele@sh.itjust.works
            6·
            2 days ago

            My thought was that they shouldn’t be allowed to do jobs that benefit the outside society at all. They can grow and cook their own food, clean their own living spaces, sew and launder their own clothes etc and maybe hold an outside job as part of a finite period for reintegration but I don’t like the idea of them being allowed to work outside the confines of their incarceration because I worry about a society being able to benefit in any way from incarceration. I think it should always cost way more to lock people up than to let them be free. If you think it’s worth it to keep this person out of society put your money where your mouth is. But yes at the very least they should be paid as much as a normal employee would have to be.

            • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
              1·
              1 day ago

              maybe hold an outside job as part of a finite period for reintegration

              That’s not a bad idea. Like a student co-op to help get some job experience before leaving school. (and should be normal wages)

        • LovableSidekick@lemmy.worldEnglish
          6·
          2 days ago

          Fine by me - I’ve hired ex-cons to do work on my house and would hire them again. But there’s a lot of vindictiveness about people’s past deeds. An excellent computer programmer I worked with got fired when her background check turned up a prostitution arrest from when she had been a homeless 18-year-old. Then at age 32, after turning her life around, she found herself being abruptly escorted from the building by two security guards. The problem was that we worked in a school district headquarters - nowhere near away students, but rules are rules and bureaucrats gonna crat, right? I would have had her give talks in front of high school kids. But it isn’t just misdirected authority - ordinary people social media will equally crucify somebody for Liking the wrong tweet. Maybe flinging shit is just a primate instinct, I dunno.

  • pappabosley@lemm.eeEnglish
    26·
    2 days ago

    A large force of inexperienced indentured servants fighting the blaze, yet so much coverage about the horror of a handful of female hires.

    • anomnom@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      19·
      2 days ago

      A lot of them are experienced though. They’ve been using prison labor for wildfire fighting for years.

      • RagingRobot@lemmy.world
        241·
        2 days ago

        Maybe they should pay them the real wage the other firefighters get then? I’m cool with them working but not with them being taken advantage of. That lowers the salary of every fire fighter not just the prisoners. That means a real firefighter is out of a job if a slave can be forced to do it.

        • TimewornTraveler@lemm.ee
          10·
          2 days ago

          If they get wages then they’d be able to build a better life after being paroled and they wouldn’t be getting sent back to prison on parole violations. So the system would lose its “human capital”… it’s sad. Never go to prison, especially not the first time.

        • shades@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          4·
          2 days ago

          That means a real firefighter is out of a job if a slave can be forced to do it.

          ¡Not if you commit arson!

    • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
      42·
      2 days ago

      I mean…if you’ve got a trained firefighter, someone who understands fire science…do they need to be the ones holding every hose? Why not just a bunch of muscle holding the hose (or digging the trenches) under the guidance of a pro?

      • Jimmycakes@lemmy.world
        3·
        1 day ago

        No one is stopping that from happening they just don’t want prison slaves used for it. Considering how much of our justice system is just made up bullshit that incentivizes bad people to keep prisons full so there’s plenty of slaves to choose from instead of just making this a normal job that would require proper pay and benefits.

  • Furbag@lemmy.world
    421·
    2 days ago

    Ah yes, California’s penal legion of slaves “indentured servants” that we uh… voted to keep around in the last election.

    Man, CA politics are fucking bizarre. Sometimes the slam dunk no-brainer propositions fail and there never seems to be a really good reason why.

    • Wogi@lemmy.world
      434·
      2 days ago

      Money, and liberals.

      California is liberal. Not left. Every once in a while some leftist proposition comes up that threatens money, and money always wins.

      When they say liberals are wolves in sheep’s clothing, this is kinda what they’re talking about. They care, they really care about their fellow man, as far as their comfortable standard of living allows.

  • ThatKomputerKat@lemmy.world
    68·
    2 days ago

    I think one of the absolute stupidest things about this when it comes up is that when these same people get let out of prison they can’t even get the job of fire fighter because of their criminal record.

    • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
      35·
      2 days ago

      While no legal system is perfect, I much prefer the way some countries prevent the public from hearing the actual names of criminals or someone’s criminal history. Not everyone needs to be branded for life with a scarlet letter. It would reduce recidivism as well.

  • catsarebadpeople@sh.itjust.works
    42·
    2 days ago

    Also keep in mind that they are getting charged by the day to be in prison and if ever released will owe a large bill. Usually this results in immediate bankruptcy which further increases chances of future incarceration. By design

  • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    59·
    2 days ago

    Slavery is alive and well in the United States Of America.

    (As a side note it’s funny how, with a century of delay, the US pretty much followed the UK in making slavery “illegal” by just making chattel slavery illegal and, not long after, replacing it with indentured servitude. The non “funny” side is that Britain has already dropped indentured servitude but the US is busy actually expanding their variant of it with things like 3-strikes legislation)

      • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        21·
        2 days ago

        The 13th Amendment to the US constitution makes slavery illegal except for prisoners.

        Exactly my point.

        The type of prisioners made to work like this in the US tend to be people who are in prison for crimes directly or indirectly related to poverty, not things like murder, making it it a lot like indentured servitude worked in Britain were people who couldn’t pay their debts were used as slaves.

  • Rottcodd@lemmy.world
    1991·
    3 days ago

    That’s why homelessness is being criminalized.

    The explicit goal is to recreate Victorian workhouses for the benefit of the new generation of robber barons.

  • Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    1071·
    3 days ago

    Hey, they’re lucky not to be used as slaves!

    The 13th Amendment states: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

    Let’s call for-profit prisons what they are - Plantations.

    • sik0fewl@lemmy.ca
      31·
      2 days ago

      I always assume it’s a European (or maybe Canadian) that makes posts like this. Last time I asked, I think they we’re European - definitely not American.

      But I really hope that Americans, at least, know that the right to enslave is enshrined in their constitution.