California Gavin Newsome has signed a bill for inmates who have served as volunteer firefighters to become professionals after serving their prison time. The new law was approved amid the devastating wildfires on the West Coast.
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The new bill will reform California’s inmate volunteer firefighter program which will allow them to pursue a firefighter career after completing their prison sentence. As reported by ABC 7, the CAL FIRE trains minimum-security prison inmates so they can earn $1 an hour while on duty and $2 per day on their days off. The program also reduces the sentences for inmates for each day they are fighting wildfires.
Newsom said in the following tweet that the previous requirements were “decades-old” and believed each inmate has the right to a second chance, “CA’s inmate firefighter program is decades-old and has long needed reform. Inmates who have stood on the frontlines, battling historic fires should not be denied the right to later become a professional firefighter. Today, I signed #AB2147 that will fix that.”
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CA’s inmate firefighter program is decades-old and has long needed reform.
Inmates who have stood on the frontlines, battling historic fires should not be denied the right to later become a professional firefighter.
Today, I signed #AB2147 that will fix that. pic.twitter.com/15GJ7Gijt7
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) September 11, 2020
The inmates also work a similar schedule to professional firefighters in the state. However, only 1,354 inmates are currently in the program due to the COVID-19 pandemic and those with severe criminal offenses are not eligible for the program.
“This bill would allow a defendant who successfully participated in the California Conservation Camp Program or a county incarcerated individual hand crew as an incarcerated individual hand crew member, and has been released from custody, to petition to withdraw their plea of guilty or plea of nolo contendere and enter a plea of not guilty,”