Time for Incarcerated Fire Fighters To Earn a Living Wage

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FEATURING SIMONE PRICE - California’s incarcerated firefighters may win a huge pay bump if Gov. Gavin Newsom signs a bill that’s just reached his desk. AB 247 would raise the minimum wage for this group of workers from below-minimum wage to $7.25 an hour. 

As global warming triggers fire seasons that are longer and deadlier than normal, California’s reliance on incarcerated firefighters grows. But they are often treated as dispensable. 

Simone Price is the Director of Organizing at the Center for Employment Opportunities, where she oversees a program designed to center the voices of formerly incarcerated people at the local and federal level. She spoke with Sonali Kolhatkar about AB 247.

NOTE: In an earlier version of this interview, Sonali erroneously cited the original proposed pay increase of $19 an hour. That amount was adjusted down to $7.25.

ROUGH TRANSCRIPT:

Sonali Kolhatkar: I think those people who may not live in fire zones or outside California may not really be aware to the extent that we as a state rely on incarcerated firefighters. I'm near Altadena. It was a big story in January of this year about how incarcerated firefighters made a huge difference to the ability to save property and lives. 

Tell us how much the state is relying on, and increasingly so, on incarcerated firefighters. 

Simone Price: Yeah of course, I mean this past January as Los Angeles experienced one of the most destructive wildfires, I think it came to the world's attention just how often the state is relying upon currently incarcerated people who are working on these fire crews. 

But it's actually been a trend that's evolved and increased over time. And for the past several wildfire seasons, about a third of the emergency responses that were deployed to fires were currently incarcerated people. And this past January, those numbers were 40%. So, it's very often incarcerated folks who are working side by side with their Calfire counterparts, but who are currently serving a sentence and receiving not only far below minimum wage, but about $5 to $10 per day and as much as a dollar per hour in an emergency situation. So far, far below minimum wage.