Land of the Free, Home of the Slave.

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States" 13th Amendment US Constitution

California's reliance on inmate firefighters means falling prison populations have crippled the State's wildfire response. The answer doesn't lie in bringing back higher levels of for-profit incarceration but in removing barriers to rehabilitation and employment. However, the new administration’s plan to round up tens of millions of undocumented immigrants in for-profit prisons, combined with rising prices and cuts to Federal Budgets, could see America regress to become economically dependent on coerced labour.

California has depended on incarcerated firefighters for over a century. As climate change increases the severity, frequency and scale of wildfires, that dependence has grown. However, social reforms to reduce overcrowding mean thousands fewer inmates are available, and squeezed budgets have failed to fill the shortfall with employed firefighters. Since at least 2014, falling inmate numbers have been flagged as increasing the downside risks from wildfire damage, contributing to the higher risk assessment that has seen over three million homeowner fire insurance policies cancelled in the past few years.

While the State saves an estimated $100 million a year by using cheap prison labour to supplement fire departments, it now faces what could be the most expensive environmental disaster in US History. Estimates range from $50 billion in economic damages to $200 billion in insurance payouts, with the State often acting as an insurer of last resort where private companies have recently refused cover.

Dropping Prison Populations = Rising Problems

In 2006, California's prison population peaked at 165,000 prisoners in a system with a capacity of 85,000. In 2011, the Supreme Court ruled that the overcrowded conditions were unconstitutional and ordered the State to reduce overcrowding in two years. In response, the State implemented the Public Safety Realignment initiative, which moved many non-violent offenders to alternative programs. As the prison population fell, so did crime and recidivism.

The Corrections Department, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and the Los Angeles County Fire Department operate the current "Firecamps" program. In 2010, around 4,000 inmates were in the fire camps. As fires were projected to be an increasing risk, proposals were drawn up to refurbish existing camps and even build new ones.

In 2014, Attorneys working for Kamala Harris's office when she was Attorney General of California filed an argument against further moves to reduce the prison population, citing the need for inmate firefighters.

"Extending 2-for-1 credits ( essentially halving prison time) to all minimum custody inmates at this time would severely impact fire camp participation — a dangerous outcome while California is in the middle of a difficult fire season and severe drought."

Harris later strongly distanced herself from this, a spokesman for her presidential election campaign stated -

"Senator Harris was shocked and troubled by the use of this argument. She looked into it and directed the department's attorneys not to make that argument again."

https://inthesetimes.com/article/listen-california-attorney-general-shocked-by-her-own-departments-arguments

Senator Harris herself told ThinkProgress’ Alice Ollstein in an interview:

“The idea that we incarcerate people to have indentured servitude is one of the worst possible perceptions,” said Harris. ​“I feel very strongly about that. It evokes images of chain gangs. I take it very seriously and I’m looking into exactly what needs to be done to correct it.”

Sen. Kamala Harris

However, the State still relied on Inmate Labour as a critical part of its wildfire strategy.

Even as proposals to invest more and expand the firecamp program were being assessed, the existing camps had fallen to around 50% occupancy. First, the plans to extend the program were put on hold. Then Gov. Gavin Newsom closed eight camps in the 2020-21 state budget.

The State government assessed that the State's prison population would continue to decline by around 7% in 2023-24 and will do so again in 2025-26.

California Legislative Analysts Office

By the time of the latest wildfires, the program has barely one thousand inmate firefighters.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) responded to falling numbers by widening the program's eligibility criteria in recent years to include both younger offenders and previously excluded higher-risk inmates with violent convictions, such as aggravated assault or armed robbery.

Arsonists are still barred.

Hard Labour

"Fire doesn't know if you're a volunteer, if you're paid, if you're an inmate."

Justin Schmollinger

Inmate firefighters are at far higher risk of death and injury. As Justin Schmollinger, who oversees the program, told the Smithsonian in 2022; Fighting wildfires requires a different skill set than fighting domestic building fires. Teams of workers often hike into inaccessible areas to hack away firebreaks with hand tools and chainsaws, with little water available and often close to large, unpredictable fires. Compared to professional firefighters, inmates are four times as likely to be injured and eight times as likely to suffer smoke inhalation.

"The conditions in California prisons are so terrible that fighting wildfires is a rational choice,"

Matthew Hahn

However, despite the low pay and high risk of injury, many Prisoners see value in the program. Many inmates say they are grateful for the program: working in relatively low-security camps in the countryside, with fewer threats of violence and institutionalisation, some say that for the first time, they feel appreciated by society—and spoken to like humans. Female inmate firefighters value better visiting conditions for children to the camps.

"The conditions in California prisons are so terrible that fighting wildfires is a rational choice," says Matthew Hahn, a former inmate firefighter writing in the Washington Post in 2021. Theoretically, the inmates are gaining valuable in-demand skills that should lead to employment. In reality, most struggle to continue as firefighters upon leaving prison. One reason for this is competition for jobs. With Californian Fire Departments facing budget cuts, more people are willing to be Professional firefighters than the State will pay to employ, and the Californian Professional Firefighters Union is against making it easier for ex-prisoners.

Other legal barriers stand in the way: Strict Parole travel limitations can make travelling to available work impossible. Most Californian fire departments require their Firefighters to have Emergency Medical Technician licenses. People convicted of a single felony cannot hold an EMT license until they have been out of prison for 10 years; by this time, many have aged out of the physical fitness requirements. People convicted of more than one felony are permanently banned from ever qualifying as an EMT. However, many fire departments encourage released prisoners to work as seasonal community firefighters - unpaid volunteers.

Speaking to Democracy Now in 2018, Romarilyn Ralston of the California Coalition for Women Prisoners explained,

"You don't get a lot of the training that's needed to get these jobs post-release. You have the experience, the front-line experience. You have placed your life on the line. You've protected California. You've saved lives and property. But they don't take into consideration all of that experience that you have on the front line. They are still looking for a certain degree of training and licensing in order to employ you."

Romarilyn Ralston

California’s False Economy

California's falling crime and prisoner levels should be seen as a success of social reform. However, it has exposed that the $100 million a year in savings made by relying on the indentured labour of inmates has proven to be a false economy.

These latest wildfires are a pivotable moment for California's fire resilience. Public sentiment sees inmate firefighters' service and contribution and recognises that they are exploited. If their conditions are improved, and the legal hurdles - such as simplifying the process for inmate firefighters to have their felony criminal records expunged, then even as prison populations fall, the program has the potential to rehabilitate and recruit the expanded fire departments the State badly, urgently, needs to face the growing threats.

Thirteen: Unlucky for Some.

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution

The legal basis for inmate labour has broader, worrying implications. Many people outside the US, especially many white Westerners, are shocked that Slavery was never entirely abolished in the USA. The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery "except as punishment for crime." a loophole that allowed practices like convict leasing, where state and for-profit prisons sell prisoner labour - not just to governments but to manufacturers and retail outlets, undercutting the minimum wage.

The practice has persisted because the economic arguments are clear. Inmate firefighter labour saves California an estimated $100 million annually. Professional firefighters receive an average annual salary of $74,000 plus benefits—$85,000+ in the City Los Angeles. Inmates are paid roughly $10.24 daily but can earn $29.80 for gruelling 24-hour shifts during wildfire emergencies. The minimum hourly wage in California is $16.50 an hour, which would be $396 for a 24-hour shift. Budgets are tight, and Prison Labour is cheap.

There are now Democrat proposals to make pay fairer -

“Incarcerated firefighters are on the frontlines saving lives. They are heroes just like everybody else on the frontlines, and they deserve to be paid like it”

Isaac Bryan

Assemblymember Bryan has proposed AB 247 where California’s inmate firefighters would get -

“an hourly wage equal to the lowest nonincarcerated firefighter wage in the State of California for the time that they are actively fighting a fire.”

However this comes just months after Californians rejected Proposal 6 which would have banned indentured servitude in the state. Campaigners put this down to poor communication and understanding of the issue.

In late 2020, Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Representative William Lacy Clay (D-MO) proposed a resolution to close the 13th Amendment loophole. Constitutional amendments require a rigorous process: approval by a two-thirds majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, followed by ratification from three-fourths of state legislatures. Unlikely as it was to succeed, the process stalled without progressing to a vote.

Alongside reforms to reduce the prison population, California also attempted to end the State's use of private for-profit prisons. Minimum occupancy guarantees given to companies encourage higher incarceration rates, whose coerced below-minimum-wage labour then undermines working communities and perpetuates systemic inequalities.

When Governor Newsom signed AB-32 in 2019 to halt for-profit prisons, he said:

"During my inaugural address, I vowed to end private prisons, because they contribute to over-incarceration…These for-profit prisons do not reflect our values."

Governor Newsom

Assemblymember Bonta, who proposed the law, said

"By ending the use of for-profit, private prisons and detention facilities, we are sending a powerful message that we vehemently oppose the practice of profiteering off the backs of Californians in custody."

Mia Bonta

The State had aimed to end the use by 2028, including for immigration camps, but the first Trump administration and Private Prison company GEO Group successfully sued the state.

The LA Times reported

“AB 32 would have prohibited new contracts and phased out existing private detention facilities by 2028. But days before it could take effect on Jan. 1, 2020, ICE established new contracts of up to 15 years, totaling nearly $6.5 billion, with three private prison companies that already operated private detention centers in the state: the GEO Group, CoreCivic and Management & Training Corp.”

Andrea Castillo, LA Times “California tried and failed to ban for-profit ICE detention centers. What does that mean for other states?” June 2023

As with jailed citizens, detainees in immigration camps are coerced to labour for the profit of the private companies running the camps. In 2017, the Project for Government Oversight reported that the business model is simple - companies win large government contracts to run the camps, with the promise of creating jobs in the area - however, as detainees in their "voluntary work program" then do much of the cleaning, cooking, laundry and maintenance - some not even getting the $1 per day congress set half a century ago - the local jobs never materialise. While the work is termed 'voluntary’ many prisoners have testified that if they refuse to work, they get punished, including solitary confinement.

Anita Sinha, director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic at American University Washington College of Law, argues that ICE camp labour should not be covered by the 13th Amendment, allowing slavery as punishment.

"Involuntarily labor is only permissible if it's due to a punishment of a crime, Immigration detention is not meant to be punishment for a crime. It's a civil issue."

Anita Sinha - Director International Human Rights Law , AUWCL

How long it remains only a civil issue under the new administration remains to be seen: House Bill 1484, introduced in the Mississippi Legislature in January 2025 by State Representative Justin Keen, a Republican, is seeking to put a $1,000 bounty on the capture undocumented immigrants, and the creation of a new State felony offence of “Trespass by an illegal alien”, punishable by life in prison - and so in for profit labour camps - without the possibility of parole.

“The offense of trespass by an illegal alien under this section is a felony for which the authorized term of imprisonment is life imprisonment without eligibility for probation, parole, conditional release, or release except by act of the Governor or the natural death of such person.” - House Bill 1484

It is almost unthinkable this could become law. Almost. But these are unprecedented times, the unthinkable is the foundation presidential policy.

Land of the Free - Home of the Slave?

Now, under the second Trump administration, for-profit imprisonment is set to boom. Financial advice site ‘The Stock Dork” advised

“One of the primary issues with investing in the prison-industrial complex is the moral challenges that come with it…. Private prison stocks can be a profitable investment from a financial standpoint; however, they may carry with them some ethical implications. Investing in prison stocks can be controversial as some investors might find it immoral to invest in the incarceration of others….From a financial standpoint, prison stocks can actually turn out to be a resilient investment considering their primary client is the government…America leads the world with the most incarceration per capita, which benefits the industry.”

Stock Dork - The 3 Best Prison Stocks To Buy Now In 2025

The GEO Group, NYQ: GEO, is one of the largest providers, with over a Billion dollars a year in government contracts. Their stock price tripled in the past year from $11.48 in January 2024 to $34.34 today - most gains were made in November when their stock more than doubled.

The second largest provider, Core Civic (NYQ: CXW), saw the same pattern, jumping from $13.19 to $24.99 with Trump's second election win.

The Trump campaign made bold economic promises that it could struggle to deliver. Elon Musk claims his new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) alone will cut $2 trillion from the Federal budget.

The companies running the immigration detention centres already profit by hiring prisoners to "public work programs," which provide services that would otherwise need to be funded by government agencies.

As the new administration pushes ahead with wide-ranging moves to strip immigrants of rights, restrict citizenship, and round tens of millions of people up for 'deportation', what would have seemed impossible even a decade ago is now, incredibly plausible - that the immigration internees will not be deported, but instead be slave labour leveraged to offset federal budget and employment cuts and to lower domestic US manufacturing, and agricultural, wage costs, to counter the impact of tariff inflated import prices.

As Naomi Klein warns in The Shock Doctrine, abuse of prisoners often signals a deeper effort to impose undemocratic systems. California: even with social reforms and moves against for-profit prisons, has remained over-reliant on inmate firefighters - once exploitation becomes embedded within our institutions, it creates a self-perpetuating cycle of injustice and dependence.

As America’s economy degrades to become even more reliant on cheap, coerced labour, it will not be undone without heavy cost.

“The widespread abuse of prisoners is a virtually foolproof indication that politicians are trying to impose a system--whether political, religious or economic--that is rejected by large numbers of the people they are ruling. Just as ecologists define ecosystems by the presence of certain "indicator species" of plants and birds, torture is an indicator species of a regime that is engaged in a deeply anti-democratic project, even if that regime happens to have come to power through elections "

Naomi Klein