In the year 2020, we have been experiencing the terror of these recent forest fires. The United states has so many firefighters engaging the heat but they now have become stretched thin. With these new fires our government has introduced new incarcerated fire fighters, and have now gotten backlash for their compensation of these new firefighters, some saying it is a new form of slavery.
Another problem is how most of these incarcerated fire fighters when they are released, most because of their rap-sheet cannot get a job as a firefighter. Brandon Smith, a formerly incarcerated firefighter, says he was making $57 a month, while the average firefighter was making $37,000 a year.
On January 31, 1865 the thirteenth amendment was made in order to abolish slavery, under this act slavery could only be used as a form of punishment to a person if they did a crime. Though you can see this amendment does not age well especially for these inmates who are trying to survive the fires themselves, same as regular fire fighters, with very little payoff.
Recently Gavin Newsom Governor of California has approved of a new law that will help incarcerated firefighters get a job in the world. This law is called AB 2147, and it is meant to help incarcerated firefighters by expunging them of their criminal records. Meaning they will wipe the slate clean from these people’s plates so they could get another meal for themselves and their families.
For me these people are my heroes. People that did something now trying to do something good. But while most of these inmates have the intentions of doing their job in good will, the corporations like the penitentiary institutions systems are trying to make as much money as possible off of people's heads. If giving a payout of only 57 cents an hour is a strategy, they’ll take it.