California inmates battle wildfires for $1 an hour

As wildfires rage across northern California, a group of low-paid firefighters is on the front lines.

Inmates in California's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation have been fighting wildfires for $1 an hour. Some have worked as long as 72 hours straight.

The men and women fighting the wildfires work throughout 43 adult conservation camps in the state, CNN reported. As part of their work there, they clear hiking trails and flood channels and cut brush and trees, both to prevent fires and -- in emergency situations like we're seeing right now -- to stop them from spreading.

"The inmates are all doing some form of conservation work every day that they are not on a fire line," Bill Sessa, a spokesman for the corrections department, told CNN.

"Every inmate we have right now is either on a fire line, on a rest period from being on a fire line, or providing backup to fire protection somewhere and ready to go to a fire," he added.

The 3,800 inmates who participate are in minimum custody and stay at the conservation camps year-round under the supervision of corrections officers and fire captains. They apply for the program as an alternative to a more typical prison sentence. As much as half of California's firefighting teams are made up of inmates, the New York Times reported.

On days when they're not actively fighting fires for $1 an hour, they get $2 a day. They also get two days off from their sentences for each day of good behavior, compared to one day in normal prison circumstances.

It's better pay and a better living situation than other inmates are able to have in prison, but $1 an hour fighting dangerous wildfires doesn't exactly seem to be fair compensation, as some pointed out on Twitter.

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"The pay is ridiculous,’’ La’Sonya Edwards, a firefighter, told the New York Times. ‘‘There are some days we are worn down to the core,’’ she said. ‘‘And this isn’t that different from slave conditions. We need to get paid more for what we do.’’

As the officers running the program like to emphasize, some of the firefighters on the front lines find satisfaction and occasionally a new career path in their work.

‘It feels good when you see kids with signs saying, ‘Thank you for saving my house, thank you for saving my dog,’" firefighter Marquet Jones told the New York Times. "It feels good that you saved somebody’s home, you know? Some people, they look down on us because we’re inmates.’’