Newsom Signs Law Allowing Inmate Fire Crews to Become Professional Firefighters

By Mary Anne R. First Posted: Sep 11, 2020 11:31 PM EDT

As wildfires continue to ravage across the state, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a new bill on Friday, allowing inmate firefighters on the front lines to become professional firefighters after they are released from prison.

The bill fast tracks the inmates' process to clear their records so they can earn a certificate to be part of the fire department. According to Newsom, the legal measure will give people on the front lines hope.

"Thousands of prisoners are on the front lines, that are near the end of their time in prison, that are getting credits and want the opportunity," Newsom said in a report.

Newsom noted that the training would let the inmates to possibly join a workforce they have been trained in and have actively participated in heroic ways.

In recent years, prison inmates have long helped California combat the wildfires as fire sources have struggled to keep up.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Conservation Camps Programs pays inmates around $1 an hour to fight fires and earn time off their prison sentences. Around 200 inmates helped fight the fire in the 2019 Camp Fire in Butte County.

Critics said that the skills learned do not benefit the inmates once they out of prison as their criminal record often prevents them from getting any firefighter positions.

Under the bill, an inmate would need to appeal a court to set their convictions aside. Convicts of violent felonies and sex offenses would not be qualified for the petition.

Newsom cited climate change for the wildfires.

"It is here now, California is America fast-forward. What we're experiencing is coming to communities all across America unless we get our act together...This is a climate damn emergency," Newsom said in a report.

According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention, a wildfire ravaging Northern California is reportedly the state's largest on record.

CBS News meteorologist and climate specialist Jeff Berardelli said that there had been a buildup of brush, but climate change is making fires worse. Air temperatures in the West have risen over the past few decades, which adds energy and heat to the atmosphere.

Newsom reiterated his previous statement tackling climate change to prevent future fire seasons like what is currently happening in California.

Cal Fire said that around 14,000 firefighters were on the line of 29 major wildfires in the state. It added that although 37 new fires were sparked yesterday, the workforce contained most of them quickly, though two have grown to large wildfires.

Over 3.1 million acres have burned in the state since the beginning of the year, which is another record. At least 12 people have died because of wildfires. Over 3,900 structures have been destroyed, according to Cal Fire.

Meanwhile, 500,000 people in Oregon, which is 10 percent of the state's population, were forced to evacuate as wildfires continue to race more than a dozen Western states.

At least 26 people have died, and hundreds of homes have been destroyed by more than 100 major fires, which consumed an area close to the size of New Jersey.