Inmate firefighters battle California's Kincade Fire on
Oct. 29, 2019. In late June, officials locked down 12 inmate fire camps
after outbreaks of the coronavirus within the state's prison system.
Noah Berger/AP
Last fall, Jason Dixon fought wildfires.
"Close
enough to singe your beard hair," he said, the day after he and his
team of about a dozen inmate firefighters from Valley View Correctional
Facility in Glenn County battled California's wine country Kincade Fire
last October. "Fighting the flames hand to hand."
That day, 37-year-old Dixon made an aggressive stand
to protect a neighborhood nestled in the golden foothills of Sonoma
County. But for much of this summer, Dixon has been stuck at his fire
camp, one of more than 40 located in rural parts of the state.
In
late June, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
officials put 12 prison fire camps on lockdown after they were
potentially exposed to the coronavirus through outbreaks within the prison system, sidelining as many as 750 inmate firefighters.
A few weeks later, the CDCR extended
the quarantine at four of the camps — Dixon's included — after he and
other prisoners were potentially exposed to the virus again by a nurse
team brought in to administer coronavirus tests.
"We're
trying hard to get out there on the fires," Dixon said. "We're working
out daily still. Training hard. But we're dealing with the coronavirus.
We're getting thrown speed bumps left and right."
California has used inmate firefighters since the 1940s. People
like Dixon carry heavy backpacks and perform vital but backbreaking
grunt work. They use saws and axes to clear underbrush around a fire. In
recent years, 3,500 of the state's 15,500 wildfire fighters were
inmates, according to the state's fire agency, Cal Fire.
But
this year, many inmate firefighters were sent home from prison after the
state granted early release to thousands of prisoners to depopulate
crowded facilities and slow the spread of the coronavirus. As a result,
less than half of California's inmate firefighting crews were active for
duty much of July.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state would
have to hire more than 800 additional seasonal firefighters to backfill
the work of the inmate fire crews.
"Some of the toughest work that's done out there on the lines, some
of the most important work, is done by these hand crews," he said during
a July press conference when just 94 of the state's 192 inmate crews
were active. "We have some urgency to provide supplemental support in
terms of seasonal firefighters."
The setbacks highlight the
challenges that California and other Western states are facing heading
into the most dangerous part of fire season amid the worst pandemic in
more than 100 years. Even a potential exposure to the virus could
sideline hundreds of firefighters for weeks.
This year, the
northern part of California received only a moderate amount of winter
rain, and the region faces a worse-than-average outlook
for wildfires. The recent coronavirus surge across California, just as
the state enters its hottest, driest and most fire-prone months, could
make this current fire season especially complicated and perilous.
Thom Porter, director of Cal Fire, the state's fire agency, said
state officials are working to activate as many of "the inmate fire crew
members that we possibly can," but he acknowledged that the agency
doesn't "expect this season to make it to full capacity with inmate
crews."
More potential lockdowns
Prison
officials say Dixon and many of the inmate firefighters could be
operational again as early as this week. But testing confirmed at least
one prisoner and one staffer are COVID-19 positive; one fire camp will
remain on extended lockdown.
"There's always the possibility
that some crew somewhere is going to get quarantined," said Christine
McMorrow, a spokesperson for Cal Fire.
The lockdowns come on the heels of widespread criticism
of CDCR by lawmakers, inmate advocates and public health officials for
the way the department has handled outbreaks at penitentiaries across
the state.
The most high-profile incident was the transfer of
inmates away from an outbreak at California Institution for Men in Chino
to San Quentin State Prison in Marin County. That move resulted in an
explosion of more than 2,000 infections at San Quentin, including at least 19 deaths.
The use of inmate firefighters in dangerous wildfires has been criticized by criminal justice advocates as well. The inmates face an uphill battle getting hired by a fire agency after they're released because of their felony records.
The
pay is also very low. CDCR spokesperson Alexandra Powell told KQED that
depending on their skill level, inmate firefighters earn between $2.90
and $5.12 per day. When prisoners are assigned to an active emergency,
they earn an additional $1 per hour.
Sometimes the very dangerous work has cost them their lives.
Compared to a prison, Dixon said, it is easier to keep physically
distanced at the camp; the number of inmate firefighters ranges from 48
to 64 people on any given day. Inmates sleep on single beds instead of
bunk beds, and they have an hour or two each day in an exercise yard,
where they can keep far apart from other people. Each night they can use
the telephone, which is sanitized in-between calls, he said.
"We have guys that are daily cleaning the bathrooms, cleaning the dorms, disinfecting everything," he said.
During
the lockdown, most people incarcerated in the camps are required to
spend the bulk of the day at their bunks, and they do pushups and other
exercises to stay in firefighting shape, Dixon said.
He knows it's a long shot, but he hopes to be hired to fight wildfires when he's released from prison next year.
"The
best thing is the reaction of the people's face, because you run into
people on the fire who live out there and they're like very thankful,"
he said. "It makes you feel good inside."