For a few dollars and reduced sentences, inmates toil in LA firefighting

Los Angeles — When the recent wildfires hit portions of Los Angeles, 37-year-old jail inmate Giordano Sanchez and others were transported by authorities to serve on the kitchen staff set up in response to the fire outbreak in the Palisades area.

Sanchez said the 12-hour shifts, which involves feeding and hydrating inmate firefighters who go to battle the flames, comes without any wages.

"I don't get paid because I had made a mistake over there at the prison and I got [disciplinary], so they [made] me come over here and work for free," Sanchez told TRT World, speaking through metal fencing at a firefighter camp in Malibu, California.

Sanchez, who described being "forced" to join the firefighting mission, was ferried from Sierra Conservation Center, a training and rehabilitation site for incarcerated individuals who committed minimum and medium offences in the US state of California.

He is one of the many inmates within the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) system who have been brought to support firefighters on the front line.

A quietly maintained California ruling from 2024 affirms that county prisoners working as kitchen staffers and in other similar roles do not have to be compensated for their time.

Instead, the convicted people can voluntarily take on those jobs in exchange for reductions in the duration of their jail time.

Sanchez — who told TRT World he was imprisoned for shoplifting — said that for a drug-related infraction committed inside the prison, the only way he could be released without an extension to his sentence was by toiling during the 12-hour shifts as an unpaid food service staffer.

He said he found it hard to consider the option voluntary as a result.

These technicalities in the execution of fair labour laws for incarcerated individuals highlights the United States' modern day legalised practice of indentured servitude, enshrined in the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution.

"If I don't go, I get another write up and I get more time [in the jail] and I don't get to go to my family," said Sanchez, who according to the CDCR inmate directory, is slated to complete his sentence in September of this year.

Hard at work for a fraction of wages

California has come under renewed scrutiny since the outbreak of the apocalyptic wildfires in Palisades, Eaton and elsewhere that have so far claimed at least 29 lives and destroyed tens of thousands of acres of wildlife and infrastructure.

The economic loss has been estimated at $250 billion to $275 billion.

At least 1000 of the firefighters involved in battling the recent LA fires are reportedly jail inmates, and their wages can range from 6 to 34 dollars per day.

Another inmate Roser, who gave his first name only and seemed content with volunteering to join the firefighting mission, told TRT World he makes 24 dollars a day as a food service staffer.

"Considering I'm incarcerated, the fact that I'm getting paid at all is kind of nice, but helping [fight the fires] is the better benefit," he said.

Legacy of 13th Amendment

Known for abolishing enslavement in America following the US Civil War in the 1860s, the specific language of the 13th Amendment permits the usage of "slave" labour and indentured servitude if applied as punishment for a crime.

Because of the amendment, many US states maintain policies on carceral labour that allow for corporations to contract the labour of inmates in state and private prisons, paying wages that are often a fraction of minimum wage.

In fact in the elections of November 2024, 53 percent of Californians voted against a ballot amendment to end involuntary servitude on imprisoned populations.

The Remove Involuntary Servitude as Punishment for Crime Amendment, more commonly known as Proposition 6, failed to be adopted after receiving just under 47 percent of the state's vote.

'Inhumane' system

Fighting wildfires often comes with costs.

According to Smithsonian Magazine, four inmates have died in recent years while engaging in a firefighter training or active mission.

One of the deceased prisoners, Anthony Colacino, died of heart failure during a training that occurred at the Sierra Conservation Center. The three other inmates were killed by a boulder strike, a falling tree, and a chainsaw incident.

In 2018, Time Magazine analysed firefighter injury records and uncovered that inmate firefighters are four times more likely to be injured by free-falling objects and eight times more likely to be impacted by smoke inhalation.

Sam, an inmate who preferred to use his first name only, told TRT World that some inmate firefighters were doing 24-hour shifts at a rate of around one dollar an hour.

"It's better than being in a prison, but it's still a form of… modern-day slavery," said Sam, who was recently injured during firefighting.

The carceral system in America is "inhumane", he added.