California is using nearly 1,000 inmates to battle the Los Angeles fires.
The practice of using inmates for dangerous jobs and very little pay has long been an extremely controversial issue.
Using inmates to battle fires has been banned in Colorado, Vermont, Nebraska, Utah, Alabama, Oregon, and Tennessee, but it has been practiced in California since 1915.
“As of today, 939 Fire Camp firefighters have been working around the clock cutting fire lines and removing fuel from behind structures to slow fire spread, including 110 support staff,” a spokesperson for California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a statement to NPR on Friday.
The report explains there are 35 prison labor camps in California and that some prisoners have been very badly injured doing these high-risk/low-pay jobs. In fact, they are “more than four times as likely to get cuts, bruises or broken bones compared to professional firefighters working the same fires.”
Breitbart News reports:
Inmates in states that allow it, including California, are often paid little to no money for hours of strenuous work, though the U.S. Constitution’s Thirteenth Amendment makes it clear that “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude” is legal, “except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.”
According to the CDRC, inmates are part of the fire brigade program voluntarily, and are paid just $5.80 to $10.24 per day, with additional pay being supplied during emergencies.
Multiple fires are still burning in Los Angeles after the first one began on Tuesday in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood. At least 11 people have been killed and countless homes destroyed.
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