“Conservation camps” is the term used to describe the 4,000 prison inmates who are responsible for fighting California’s wildfires. A San Francisco-based news station, KQED traveled with one of the 16-member crews as they fought the 22,600-acre Bully Fire in northern California. Inmates carried 100 pounds of gear and hiked for hours in 115 degree heat– not including the heat from the fire. The average firefighter in the state will earn around $34 an hour. These inmates earn $2 in a whole day. It’s “not an actual wage,” said John Roman, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute’s Justice Policy Center in an interview with Vox. The wage is “so far below poverty that it’s just laughable.”
Posted on: Sat, 02 Aug 2014 19:59:15 +0000
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