Let this article be a reminder to yall, while the forest services are refusing to pay volunteer firefighters as forest fire season becomes critical, this absolutely will harm inmates forced into prison labor.
california is not above abusing their power over prisoners.
Oregon does it too! Oregon also has the 7th most disproportionate rate of the arrest of black men in the US. Hmmm.
Honestly this is fucking disgusting. This liberal government doesn’t give a fuck about prisoners.
Another piece from this year today calls them volunteers https://www.scpr.org/news/2017/07/07/73585/california-inmates-offer-helping-hands-during-fire/
And a piece on a potentially deadly chainsaw injury obtained by an inmate this month, also mentions the man who died in May https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/inmate-firefighter-suffers-chainsaw-injury-fighting-fire-lakeside
These folk are on the front lines of fighting fires and the government literally just uses them bc they are the cheapest legal labor force.
Slavery never ended. It just evolved.