Fire in Los Angeles: Inmates fight the flames

Devastating fires are raging again in California. To combat this, the US state is resorting to a controversial practice: 939 prisoners are currently supporting the fire department in the affected areas around Los Angeles. According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), they cut firebreaks, remove combustibles and are on the front lines fighting the flames.

Using prisoners as firefighters in California is not a new idea. In fact, they sometimes make up up to 30 percent of the emergency services during forest fires, as the Los Angeles Times reports. The work is dangerous and requires careful selection of participants: only inmates with the lowest security level who behave well in prison and have no more than eight years of their sentence left are eligible. Serious criminals such as sex criminals or arsonists are excluded, as are people who have already fled once.

Before their deployment, the prisoners go through a short training program in 35 so-called “fire camps”: After a fitness test, they receive four days of classroom training and four days of practical training. “The work and dedication of our incarcerated firefighters during these emergencies cannot be overstated,” the CDCR told 20 Minutes. However, they earn significantly less than regular firefighters. During deployment, they receive between $5.80 and $10.24 per day, plus an additional $1 per hour in emergencies.

Such a scenario would be unthinkable in Switzerland, as Swiss justice expert Benjamin Brägger explains: “Simply because of the fact that the prisoners in the USA are publicly displayed in their conspicuous orange uniforms.” In Switzerland, this would violate the principles of human dignity and the justice system: “The tradition in the USA that prisoners are sent out to clean streets accompanied by mounted police and with ankle chains is also very foreign to us Swiss,” he says former prison warden.

In Switzerland there is an open prison system, which is not the case in the American prison system. Prisoners work under supervision on farms and carry out manual work: “Nevertheless, such prisoners would lack the necessary training and equipment for use in natural disasters,” says Brägger. In Switzerland, in the event of exceptional natural disasters, the military and civil defense are called in first because they are better prepared and equipped. “Inmates from closed prisons could not be taken into account anyway because the risk of escape would be too great for them.”

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