95bFM Burn the system: Critics raise concerns about the US’ ‘fire camp programmes’ for incarcerated workers
24 February, 2025
Interview by Caeden Tipler, adapted by Sara Mckoy
The recent Los Angeles wildfires which have torn through several districts in the city have drawn renewed attention to the use of ‘fire camp programmes,’ which employ incarcerated individuals as firefighters to battle these blazes.
Despite the California Department of Corrections saying this programme is voluntary, concerns have been raised by prison reform advocates and ex-incarcerated individuals that those involved in the scheme are being denied labour protections, are being paid below minimum wage, and are more likely to receive injuries or even die, compared to non-incarcerated firefighters.
About a thousand incarcerated firefighters assisted in responding to the Los Angeles fires, which destroyed over 16,000 homes, causing more than $250 billion USD, roughly $438 billion NZD, in damages.
In a 2022 report on Captive Labour, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) described prison labour programmes, which employ two out of three of the 1.2 million incarcerated people in United States prisons as “modern-day slavery”.
Assistant Professor in Labour Studies at Brock University in Canada, Dr Jordan House; who’s research centres around the use of prison labour in the context of contemporary capitalism, told 95bFM’s The Wire that despite this programme’s voluntary nature, he says prisoners face numerous pressures to work, including early release and expungement of their record, despite deplorable conditions.
“People want the ability to work; they need to work to secure some form of income… [but] in places like Canada or the United States, they are exempt from the minimum protections that workers enjoy related to minimum wages, employment standards, and occupational health and safety.”
However, amidst demands from prison reform advocates and prisoners themselves to improve the conditions of labour, House says a key driver of these programmes is the profitability for the state and multinational corporations, who employ incarcerated workers.
“Prison labour provides a massive subsidy to prison systems… by [how] much of the cooking, cleaning, and clerical work [are] done by prisoners themselves… and the sale of [prison industry produced] goods generates revenue.”
An important nuance that House emphasises in the employment of prison labour relates to the ‘social usefulness’ of the work.
He gives the example of dealing with climate disasters, in contrast with subsidising labour for highly profitable corporations while “prisoners get paid pennies”.
The caveat to this is an essential reflection on the minimal labour protections offered for this work.
“There is going to continue to be a need for labour to be utilised ostensibly for the public good in response to things like climate change… But like I said before, they want to do it in a way where they enjoy all the basic protections and rights that other workers have.”
House emphasises the need to call attention to exploitative prison labour programmes especially in the context of climate disasters like the LA wildfires where such practices “further perpetuate systemic inequalities” for elite profit at the expense of unprotected prison labourers.
